September 3, 2021
A Tehran prosecutor has requested the death sentence for a middle-aged man for drinking alcohol.
Without naming the citizen, Rokna News reports the man had previously been arrested three times and subjected to 240 lashes for “drinking alcohol.”
Investigations into the latest case are understood to have got underway earlier this year, following a complaint from one of the defendant’s neighbors.
Officers arrested him after he failed a breathalyzer test. The man denied drinking alcohol and got into a fight with officers at the police station, Rokna said.
In court, according to Rokna, the man again denied the new charge. His lawyer said the level of alcohol in his blood was too low to be conclusive, and there might have been a testing error.
The Islamic Republic has sentenced several citizens to death in the past for drinking alcohol. In the latest known case, in March, a Tehran prosecutor demanded the execution of a retired pilot.