TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Court has quashed a death sentence handed down to a 23-year-old man convicted of killing a policeman during nationwide protests last year, local media reported Wednesday.

Iran issued a slew of death sentences during its crackdown on the protests sparked by the September death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in morality police custody.

The Islamic republic has carried out seven of the executions, triggering international condemnation and Western sanctions.

Mohammad Ghobadlou was sentenced to death on the charge of “corruption on Earth” in October after a court found him guilty of “attacking police officers, one of them fatally,” in a car-ramming during a protest.

“The Supreme Court quashed the death sentence… against Ghobadlou and referred his case to a new jurisdiction to deal with issues relating to his mental health,” Iran’s Mehr news agency reported, citing his defense team.

Ghobadlou’s family had appealed for clemency from the court on the grounds that he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Dozens of police officers were among the hundreds of people killed during the Amini protests, which Tehran labelled “riots” fomented by foreign governments.

Authorities made thousands of arrests among protesters and their supporters.

AFP