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About 20 people attended the demonstration against Iranian authorities.

Members of the Iranian community held a silent protest in central Wellington on Saturday after the Iranian government executed three men over last years anti-regime protests.

About 20 people turned up to the protest. Two blindfolded protesters stood in silence and another two held up a banner saying women, life, freedom the slogan of the protests ignited after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in Tehran, three days after being detained by the countrys morality police for having some hair visible under her hijab (headscarf).

Another protester held up a flag known as the Lion and Sun that was used by Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and then banned by the theocratic regime.

On Friday, Saleh Mirhashemi, Saeed Yaqoubi and Majid Kazemi were executed in the central Iranian city of Isfahan for killing three security force officers last November. Human rights groups had said the three men were tortured and forced to confess on camera.

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New Zealands foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta had condemned the executions, saying on Twitter on Saturday they were a reprehensible violation of human rights.

Iranian authorities executed four other protesters in relation to the protests and dozens more had been sentenced to death. At least 582 people were executed in Iran last year.

Aida Tavassoli, a spokesperson of the Iranian Solidarity Group in New Zealand, said the authorities had been putting on sham trials for protesters and restrictions imposed last year, such as slowing down internet access, has continued.

The disruption meant Tavassoli couldnt even have a WhatsApp voice call with relatives in Iran.

Theyre using all these mechanisms to intimidate people, to stop people from protesting.

Hawar News Agency/AP

Iranian authorities executed three men in relation to anti-regime protests last year.

It was good that Mahuta had spoken against the executions, she said, but the Government needed to do more to pressure Tehran, such as declaring the regime as gender apartheid and designating the countrys Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

There is nothing for us to lose here we dont have significant trade, she said.

There is a chance for us to play a role in the international community.

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Wellington protesters stand in silence against executions in Iran - Stuff.co.nz