Iran on Friday executed three males convicted of killing safety power members throughout protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s dying final yr, the judiciary stated, drawing condemnation from rights teams.
Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi have been discovered responsible of “moharebeh” — or waging “battle towards God” — for taking pictures lifeless three members of the safety forces at an indication within the central metropolis of Isfahan on Nov. 16, the judiciary’s Mizan On-line information web site stated.
Amnesty Worldwide accused Iran of torturing the three males to illicit “confessions” earlier than they have been executed.
“Majid Kazemi stated in an audio recording from jail that he was compelled to make false self-incriminating statements after interrogators beat him, gave him electrical shocks, subjected him to mock executions, and threatened to rape him, execute his brothers and harass his dad and mom,” stated Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty Worldwide’s deputy director for the Center East and North Africa, in a press release.
Iran witnessed waves of nationwide protests following the September dying of 22-year-old Amini, an Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict gown guidelines for girls.
Amini’s cousin, Erfan Mortezaei, who lives in self-exile in Iraq, instructed CBS Information he believes she was tortured.
“She was tortured, in line with eyewitnesses,” he claimed. “She was tortured within the van after her arrest, then tortured on the police station for half an hour, then hit on her head and she or he collapsed.”
Throughout the protests, which Tehran usually labeled as foreign-instigated “riots,” hundreds of Iranians have been arrested and a whole lot killed together with dozens of safety forces.
Friday’s hangings deliver to seven the overall variety of Iranians executed in reference to the demonstrations.
Kazemi, Mirhashemi and Yaghoubi have been arrested in November and sentenced to dying in January.
AP
They have been additionally charged with membership of “unlawful teams with the intention of disrupting nationwide safety and collusion resulting in crimes towards inner safety,” Mizan stated.
It famous “proof and paperwork within the case and the clear statements made by the accused” confirmed that “the shootings carried out by these three individuals led to the martyrdom of three safety forces.”
A video shared on social media on Friday confirmed Tehran residents chanting “Dying to the Islamic republic” and different anti-regime slogans. AFP was unable to right away confirm the footage from the capital’s Ekbatan district, a middle-income space that noticed repeated anti-regime actions previously months.
The circumstances of the three males have brought about concern overseas, together with in Australia the place a few of Kazemi’s household dwell.
His cousin Mohammad Hashemi wrote an open letter to Australian International Minister Penny Wong asking for her assist.
“Majid is just 30 years outdated. He’s a compassionate, loving, and strong-willed individual. He, like many different Iranians, participated in peaceable demonstrations to lift his voice and demand change,” Hashemi wrote within the letter, printed on the petition web site change.org.
Wong on Friday condemned the execution, which she stated “exemplifies the regime’s brutality towards its individuals.”
“Australia stands with the individuals of Iran,” Wong tweeted.
“Different protesters shall be at risk”
Iran executes extra individuals a yr than some other nation besides China, in line with human rights teams together with Amnesty Worldwide.
The authorities final yr carried out the executions of 4 protesters, prompting worldwide condemnation.
Because the begin of the yr, Iran has witnessed a surge in executions on numerous expenses to campaigners’ alarm.
The most recent executions “should have severe penalties” for Tehran or dozens of “different protesters shall be at risk,” stated Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).
“We should make the Islamic republic leaders perceive that execution of protesters won’t be tolerated,” he stated on Twitter.
The authorities hanged 75% extra individuals in 2022 than the earlier yr, IHR and Paris-based Collectively Towards the Dying Penalty stated in a joint report in April. At the very least 582 individuals have been executed in Iran final yr, the very best variety of executions within the nation since 2015 and effectively above the 333 recorded in 2021, the 2 teams stated.
The frenetic tempo of executions in 2023 has not slowed, with IHR just lately counting over 220 executions up to now this yr.
Hengaw, one other Norway-based rights group, decried an “unfathomable wave of executions in Iran,” urging in a Twitter message “particular consideration from human rights organizations in addition to Western governments.”
Earlier this month, U.N. rights chief Volker Turk sounded the alarm over Iran’s “abominable” observe file this yr, with a median of greater than 10 individuals being put to dying every week.
Advocacy teams have warned that members of ethnic minorities have been disproportionately focused within the present wave of executions.