Donald Trump said that the execution of Iranian Erfan Soltani, scheduled for this Wednesday (14), did not happen. According to the North American press, the 26-year-old’s hanging has been postponed, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Soltani was arrested on January 8 on charges of having connections to the protests taking over the country. He was then sentenced to death in a quick trial, without the right to defense or a lawyer. According to Trump, deaths in Iran would be stopping, but the information said by the president cannot be confirmed. The numbers released by NGOs have risen and already total thousands of deaths as a result of the repression of anti-government protests, considered the biggest in the country in 25 years. It is estimated that more than 3,400 people died and more than 10,000 were arrested.
Recently, Trump has been suggesting intervening in the country if the repression continues. The president had stated yesterday that “help is on the way”, in a direct message to the protesters. The Iranian government issued a general warning to neighboring countries that they could be caught in the crossfire if the attack actually took place. Today, at an event in the Oval Office, he said: “We are going to check whether the murders have stopped and, if it is not true, we will be very angry.”
