The US mission in the United Nations says the execution of Mohsen Shekari represents a grim escalation of the tactics the Islamic Republic is utilizing in its ongoing brutal crackdown on protesters. 

Spokesperson and Communications Director at US mission to the United Nations Nate Evans told Iran International that the regime has rounded up and detained thousands of people for their involvement in protests, expressing concern about the harsh sentences, including the death penalty the protesters face in sham trials that lack any due process.

He added that Washington “denounces these draconian sentences, including the denial of due process for the accused, in the strongest terms.”

Referring to the recent move to expel the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the spokesman noted that “The US Mission to the UN continues to coordinate with allies and partners in New York, Geneva, and elsewhere, to confront Iran’s human rights abuses.”

Evans also expressed Washington’s determination to look for every opportunity to confront human rights abuses by the Islamic Republic. 

Similar messages were issued by State Department Spokesman Ned Price, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. 

Iran executed Shekari Thursday, the first detained protester to be killed on a “legal” basis. He was convicted of injuring a security guard and closing off a street in the capital Tehran.