TEHERAN - Iran hanged two men on Saturday for allegedly killing a security official during nationwide protests that followed the death of a Kurdish Iranian woman on Sept 16.

Iran on Saturday also appointed a new police chief, nearly four months into the protests.

General Ahmad-Reza Radan was appointed to replace Brigadier-General Hossein Ashtari, said a statement posted on the official website of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The two men executed on Saturday had been convicted of killing a member of the Basij paramilitary force.

Three others have been sentenced to death in the same case, while 11 received prison sentences.

“Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, principal perpetrators of the crime that led to the unjust martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian were hanged this morning,” the judiciary said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

The latest killings double the number to four executed in the aftermath of the unrest.

A court sentenced the two men to death in early December. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences, accusing them of killing Mr Ajamian on Nov 3 in Karaj, west of Teheran.

Prosecutors previously said the 27-year-old was stripped naked and killed by a group of mourners who had been paying tribute to slain protester Hadis Najafi.

The authorities have arrested thousands of people in the wave of demonstrations that began with the September death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the woman who had been arrested by morality police for allegedly breaching the strict hijab dress code for women.

Since the beginning of the protest movement, courts have sentenced 14 people to death in connection with the demonstrations, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on official information.

Apart from the four who have been executed, two others have had their sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court, six are awaiting new trials, and two others can lodge an appeal. AFP