Iran has seen its most widespread anti-government protests in weeks, after small crowds marched overnight in Tehran and a number of other cities.

Videos showed people chanting “Woman, life, freedom” and “Death to Khamenei” – a reference to the Supreme Leader.

It followed calls to mark the 40^th day of mourning for two men executed on protest-related charges, Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini.

The UN said they had faced unfair trials based on forced confessions.

Protests swept across the country in September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

Authorities have portrayed them as “riots” and responded with force.

So far, at least 529 protesters have been killed and almost 20,000 detained, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). Four protesters have been hanged since December, while 107 others have reportedly been sentenced to death or charged with capital offences.

Footage posted on social media showed small protests took place on Thursday night in several parts of the capital, Tehran, as well as in nearby Karaj, the eastern city of Mashhad, the central city of Isfahan, the northern cities of Qazvin and Rasht, and the western cities of Arak, Izeh and Sanandaj.

In Karaj, a crowd chanted the names of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, according to footage verified by BBC Persian. The two men were accused of killing a member of the paramilitary Basij force during a protest there in November.

Opposition activist collective 1500 Tasvir meanwhile shared a video from Mashhad in which a group of men and women are seen shouting: “My martyred brother, we shall avenge your blood.”

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Crowds were also filmed shouting slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the capital’s Tehranpars district and in Rasht.

Kurdish rights group Hengaw posted footage that it said showed protesters burning tyres to block a main road in Sanandaj, which has been one of the epicentres of the unrest.

Although the street protests have subsided recently, activists frequently share videos in which people are heard chanting anti-government slogans at night-time or are seen spray-painting graffiti. Women also continue to be pictured refusing to comply with the strict hijab laws in public places.

In a separate development on Friday, HRANA reported that authorities had released a young couple who were each jailed for 10 years after they posted a video of themselves dancing by Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Tower.

Astiazh Haqiqi, 21, and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, were convicted last month of “promoting corruption and prostitution, colluding against national security, and propaganda against the establishment”.

Meanwhile, state media reported that a court had sentenced to 15 months in prison a police commander who was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in Chabahar, in Sistan-Baluchistan province.

The alleged rape triggered mass protests in the provincial capital of Zahedan at the end of September. At least 66 people were killed when security forces responded by firing live ammunition and metal pellets, according to Amnesty International.

The police commander, Col Ebrahim Kochakzai, was convicted of creating an atmosphere of distrust towards the police, producing false meeting minutes, cancelling orders and making threats, state media said. (BBC)

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