the younger males caught up in Iran’s execution spree

The Islamic Republic of Iran has lengthy been one of many world’s high executioners, however in latest months, the variety of demise sentences handed and carried out have triggered warnings that  the state is “weaponising” the death penalty to crush dissent.

In a press release revealed January 10, 2023, UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk famous that felony proceedings and the demise penalty had been being “weaponised by the Iranian Authorities to punish people taking part in protests and to strike worry into the inhabitants in order to stamp out dissent, in violation of worldwide human rights legislation”.

Between December 8, 2022 and January 7, 2023, 4 younger individuals had been executed on capital expenses in reference to their participation within the protest motion sparked by the September 16 demise of Mahsa Amini in custody.

Amini, 22, was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s morality police for improperly carrying her hijab. Iranian authorities declare she died of an sickness, her household says she died from blows sustained throughout detention.

The primary of the 4 executions – that of Mohsen Shekari – was carried out on December 8. 4 days later, Majdireza Rahanavard was executed solely 23 days after his arrest on November 19. On January 7, Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini had been executed. “All had been executed secretly with out their households being knowledgeable,” in accordance with the UN human rights commissioner.

In a November 11, 2022 report detailing 21 demise row circumstances, Amnesty International mentioned the authorized proceedings in all of the circumstances had been “grossly unfair” and in violation of quite a few rights, together with entry to attorneys and the precise to be protected against torture.

“The trials of those that are dealing with capital expenses associated to protests have been a complete travesty of justice,” mentioned Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, with proceedings that “bypass safeguards in Iran’s personal penal code and felony process legislation”.

Listed below are some profiles of the individuals executed or sentenced to demise on expenses associated to their participation in anti-regime protests.

 

EXECUTED

Mohsen Shekari, 23, executed December 8, 2022

Mohsen Shekari was the primary demise row inmate to be executed since protests erupted following Mahsa Amini’s demise.

He was accused of stabbing a member of the Basij – a paramilitary unit working beneath the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) –and of blocking site visitors on an avenue in Tehran throughout an illustration on September 25.

Shekari was hanged on December 8 in nice secrecy, lower than three months after his arrest.

Initially from Tehran, the younger man was employed in a café in a stylish district of the capital metropolis. A music fanatic, Shekari’s social media posts usually featured him wearing dishevelled denims with scarves wrapped round his head and wrists.

In a video clip broadly shared after his execution, Shekari, accompanied by a guitar, is seen singing in what seems to be a café. “I now have just one want, it’s to see you one final time,” he sings. “You’re my lone star.”

Based on the opposition web site, 1500tasvir, his household was ready for the launch of an attraction course of and had not heard from him after they realized the Islamic Republic had “unexpectedly executed him”. Underneath Iranian legislation, defendants have 20 days to attraction a demise sentence. In a video launched shortly after his demise was introduced, his mom screams on the road, unable to include her shock.

 

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, executed December 12, 2022

After Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged at daybreak on December 12, solely 23 days after his arrest. He was accused of stabbing to demise two members of the safety forces and wounding 4 others.

Inside hours of his execution, state media broadcast pictures exhibiting the younger man, his fingers sure behind his again, hanging from a cable connected to a crane in a sq. within the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad.

The judiciary’s Mizan information company mentioned Rahnavard was hanged “within the presence of a bunch of Mashhadi residents. It was unclear what number of had been current on the public hanging and who they had been.

His mom was not instructed of the execution till after his demise. His household was then given the identify of a cemetery and a plot quantity. After they turned up, safety brokers had been burying his physique.

Earlier than his trial, the official media broadcast movies of him giving a “compelled confession”. Within the movies, Rahnavard’s left arm is “closely bandaged, elevating critical issues that he might have been tortured,” mentioned Amnesty International.

Based on his kinfolk, Rahnavard labored in a ladies’s clothes and shoe retailer in Mashhad and was an avid wrestler, a revered sport in Iran.

 

Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, executed January 7, 2023

Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, a nationwide karate champion, was executed on January 7 in Karaj, a satellite tv for pc metropolis of Tehran.

He was additionally accused of killing a Basij militia member throughout an illustration in Karaj, positioned about an hour from Tehran. He was sentenced to demise a month after his arrest by the Karaj Revolutionary Court docket in a mass trial.

Initially from Iran’s northwestern Kurdistan area, the Karami household had moved to Karaj to work.

In an audio interview posted on-line, Karami’s father mentioned he was a avenue vendor who sells napkins and had invested his life financial savings to assist his son, a karate champion and coach for kids, realise his athletic goals.

“My son is a karate champion. He has received a number of medals in nationwide competitions,” testified his father.

A photograph of Karami circulating on social media confirmed the younger, athletic man a tattoo of the Olympic rings on his arm. His household mentioned he dreamed of constructing it to the Olympics, and the tattoo was for inspiration.

Karami’s mother and father had camped exterior the jail the place that they had heard their son may be executed and had begged jail officers for a final go to however had been denied, in accordance with Iranian information reviews.

 

Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, executed January 7

Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, a employee at a poultry plant, was additionally executed in Karaj concurrently karate champion Mohammad Mehdi Karami, and on the identical expenses.

Little or no private info is obtainable about Hosseini. His mother and father had been each useless, in accordance with Iranian information media. At his trial, the 39-year-old employee mentioned he was on his method to the cemetery to go to his mother and father’ graves when he was caught in protest site visitors and clashes that resulted within the demise of the Basij member.

“The knife I had on me was meant for planting flowers and vegetation round their graves,” his lawyer quoted his consumer as saying.

Hosseini’s lawyer, Ali Sharifzadeh Zakani, tweeted that he had filed an attraction of the sentence on January 4 and was instructed by the authorities to come back again on January 7, to register the attraction.

His consumer was killed earlier than an attraction may very well be registered.

“Why such a rush? You possibly can have a minimum of allowed another evaluate of the case,” he mentioned in a tweet. 

Zakani had mentioned earlier that his consumer had been severely tortured in detention. “He was kicked within the head and fell unconscious. He was hit with an iron bar on the soles of his toes and acquired electrical shocks on completely different elements of his physique,” he wrote.

 

ON DEATH ROW:

Mohammad Boroughani, 19, sentenced to demise

Mohammad Boroughani was arrested in Pakdasht, an industrial metropolis southeast of Tehran. Iranian authorities have described him because the “chief of the riots” Pakdasht. He’s additionally accused of stabbing a authorities official, brandishing a machete and setting fireplace to the governor’s constructing.

“I went out on the road due to an Instagram story my pal posted. I do not know something about politics,” mentioned the 19 year-old at his trial, in accordance with Iran’s Tasnim information company.

Little info is understood about his household and background. Boroughani’s father earns a dwelling by amassing and promoting scrap metallic, in accordance with Iranian media reviews. {The teenager} had been working in a subcontracting firm for 2 years, in accordance with the reviews.

Boroughani’s demise sentence was confirmed on January 2, elevating fears that his execution was imminent. Nonetheless, on January 8, to forestall his execution, a crowd of Iranians gathered in entrance of the Rajaï Chahr jail in Karaj, the place he’s being held.

 

Mohammad Ghobadlou, 22, sentenced to demise

Mohammad Ghobadlou was arrested in Tehran on September 22 and is accused of operating over cops with a automotive, killing one and injuring a number of others. He was detained with Mohammad Boroughani and was additionally sentenced to demise.

The younger man labored in a hairdressing salon within the capital earlier than his arrest, in accordance with his household. In a video posted on social networks on November 1, his mom defined that her son can be bipolar and that he had been denied entry to his medicine for weeks.

Greater than a month later, a bunch of psychiatrists revealed an open letter addressed to the judicial authorities, urging them to take a more in-depth have a look at the detainee’s psychological well being and to analyse the impression this will likely have had on his judgment in the course of the protests.

His lawyer additionally filed an utility with the Supreme Court docket for judicial evaluate of his case. Nonetheless, his demise sentence was confirmed by the judiciary on December 24.

 

Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou, 53, sentenced to demise

Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou, a physician and radiologist, was sentenced to demise on December 7 in Karaj. His spouse, Farzaneh, was sentenced to 25 years in Ahvaz jail in southern Iran.

Based on Amnesty Worldwide, the couple had attended a ceremony in early November to mark the fortieth day after the demise of Hadis Najafi, who was killed throughout an illustration. On their manner house, Ghare-Hassanlou and his spouse had been reportedly stopped in Karaj, close to a spot the place a militiaman had simply been killed. Based on the NGO, the judicial authorities tortured the physician to acquire false confessions and compelled his spouse, beneath torture, to testify in opposition to him.

Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou is understood for having labored for a very long time in deprived areas. Along with his work as a radiologist, he handled sufferers voluntarily at a public clinic and helped construct faculties, in accordance with on-line publications relayed by the Iranian medical neighborhood overseas.

In an online petition by physicians and healthcare professions addressed to Iranian judicial authorities, Ghare-Hassanlou is described as a “compassionate doctor in good standing with greater than 26 years of expertise as a radiologist”.

On January 3, the judiciary introduced that it had overturned the decision in opposition to the radiologist, citing flaws within the investigation. Nonetheless, the case was despatched again to court docket and the identical expenses are nonetheless pending in opposition to him.

 

Hossein Mohammadi, 26, sentenced to demise

Hossein Mohammadi was arrested on November 5 in Karaj, accused of killing a member of the Basij. He’s a theater actor, poet and singer who has appeared in a number of brief movies and performs in Iran.

Mohammadi’s associates and colleagues mentioned he was arrested at his house. That very same evening, he known as his household and mentioned that he could be launched quickly after “the misunderstanding is resolved.” The household solely discovered later that he had been sentenced to demise on December 8.

Mohammadi’s case, together with 4 others, was determined after simply three court docket hearings unfold over six days.

A number of actors and administrators have protested his arrest and sentencing, together with French actress Juliette Binoche, who posted a video of Mohammadi with the message, “No to executions in Iran. No to the demise penalty.”

Iranian judicial authorities overturned his demise sentence in early January, citing flaws within the investigation. Nonetheless, just like the case of Ghare-Hassanlou, Mohammadi’s case was despatched again for a retrial. He’s nonetheless susceptible to execution.

 

Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh, 26, sentenced to demise

Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh was arrested on September 23 in Tehran for burning a rubbish can and tires and destroying freeway security limitations throughout an illustration. In a dialog together with his household launched by the BBC’s Persian service, the 26-year-old man asserted nonetheless that he had solely “kicked a trash can” and had moved “already broken limitations”.

A weightlifter, Nourmohammad-Zadeh has received quite a few medals in nationwide competitions, in accordance with native media. Earlier than the protests started, the sportsman additionally labored in a jewellery retailer at a Tehran shopping center. Tons of of his colleagues have signed a petition claiming his innocence.

In a video, his two grandmothers name on the Iranian justice system to launch him and drop the costs in opposition to him. “We’re two previous determined ladies who beg you to forgive him”, says one in every of them.

 

Saman Seydi, 24 years previous, sentenced to demise

Saman Seydi, additionally identified by his stage identify Yasin, is a singer-songwriter of Kurdish origin. He was arrested on October 2 in Tehran, accused of being in possession of a firearm and firing three pictures within the air throughout an illustration.

The younger man, who lived together with his mother and father and two sisters, recurrently posted movies that includes his songs on his Instagram web page. The texts, largely in Kurdish, usually referred to the discrimination in opposition to the Kurdish minority in Iran. When protests erupted following the demise of Mahsa Amini, who was additionally Kurdish, Seydi wrote a number of songs supporting the protest motion.

In a video posted on social networks, his mom insisted, “my son is an artist, my son shouldn’t be a rioter”.

 

Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, 45, sentenced to demise

Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, arrested on September 25 within the suburbs of Tehran, is accused of setting fireplace to a authorities constructing and a number of other vehicles in addition to attacking a safety guard’s put up with Molotov cocktails. Judicial authorities have requested that he be hanged in public on the similar location as the fireplace.

Little or no info is obtainable about him. He’s married and has two teenage daughters, in accordance with the Norwegian based mostly NGO Iran Human Rights, which registers demise sentences in Iran.

Based on Amnesty Worldwide, different people, for whom info is lacking, are at present on demise row. Amongst them is Saleh Mirhashemi Baltaghi, a 36-year-old karate champion and coach, convicted of taking part in an assault within the metropolis of Isfahan throughout a protest in mid-November, in accordance with Mizan On-line. But additionally “Abolfazl Mehri, Hossein Hajilou, Saeed Shirazi, Hajar Hamidi, Akbar Ghafari, Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharagholou, Toomaj Salehi, Amir Nasr Azadani, Ebrahim Rigi, Farzad and Farhad Tahazadeh, Karwan Shahiparvaneh, Reza Eslamdoost, and Shahram Marouf,” the NGO lists.

(This can be a translation of the original in French.)