Twenty-eight people were injured when relatives of an Iranian prisoner set to be executed threw a hand grenade into the prison where he was being kept in a failed attempt to prevent the execution. The attack will be read against the backdrop of ongoing executions and human rights violations being committed by the administration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The regime is on pace to match last year’s mark of 500 executions, and reform leaders in Iran have in recent weeks called attention to the plights of still-imprisoned political dissidents.

Rouhani had already triggered alarm bells among human rights activists when he nominated Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi – long a target of human rights criticism for his role in the mass murders of political prisoners – to be his Justice Minister.

Rouhani himself has a history of calling for the execution of anti-regime activists.

[Photo: joudiasghar / YouTube]