Three men sentenced to death in Iran for their involvement in the deaths of law enforcement officials during protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini last year in the country were executed on Friday, the authority said judicial.
Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi were convicted of ‘moharebeh’ (‘war against God’) and possessing a weapon during a protest in the city of Isfahan, the site said. of the information agency of the judicial authority Mizan Online.
Arrested last November, the three men were sentenced to death in January. They were also found guilty of being members of “illegal groups intending to undermine the security of the country and of collusion leading to crimes against internal security”, added mizan.
“According to the evidence and the statements of the defendants, the shooting (of firearms) of these three people led to the martyrdom of three members of the security forces”, added Mizan Online.
Iran has been rocked by a protest movement since the September 16, 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, three days after her arrest by morality police who accused her of breaking the strict dress code imposing to women, in particular the wearing of the veil in the Islamic Republic.
While relatives of Majid Kazemi live in Australia, a petition was sent to the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, asking for her support for his acquittal.
Show trials
“Majid is only 30 years old. He is a loving, compassionate and strong-willed person. Like many other Iranians, he took part in peaceful protests to raise his voice and demand change,” his cousin Mohammad Hashemi wrote, in the text of the petition posted on change.org.
Ms. Wong ruled Friday that the execution of Mr. Kazemi “illustrates the brutality of the Iranian regime”.
“Australia stands with the people of Iran,” she tweeted.
Nazanin Boniadi, a British actor and activist of Iranian origin, denounced on Twitter “murders” committed after obtaining “forced confessions” and “sham trials”.
A video, released on social media on Friday, shows residents of Tehran chanting “Death to the Islamic Republic” and other anti-regime slogans.
This video, which could be authenticated by AFP, was filmed in the district of Ekbatan, known for its middle class and having already been the site of demonstrations against power in recent months.
Many protesters have been arrested since September by the authorities.
“Unimaginable”
Iran executes more convicts than any other country except China, according to several human rights NGOs, including Amnesty International.
On May 9, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also denounced “the incredibly high number” of executions this year in Iran, more than ten per week on average.
In 2022, 582 people suffered the death penalty, up 75% from the previous year, according to Iran Human Rights and another organization, Together against the death penalty (ECPM), based in Paris.
But the pace of executions has been even more intense in 2023: the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway, has counted at least 218 executions since the beginning of the year.
Dozens of other imprisoned protesters “are in danger”, warns Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the IHR.
“We must ensure that the leaders of the Islamic Republic understand that the execution of protesters will not be tolerated,” he insists on Twitter.
For the NGO Hengaw, also based in Norway, it is “an unimaginable wave of executions in Iran”, calling on Twitter “human rights organizations as well as Western governments” to bring “an particular attention “.