«Dad, they gave the sentences. They sentenced me to be executed, but don’t tell Mum.’ Two more lives lost. In Iran, two other youths, aged 22 and 26, were executed after being convicted of killing a paramilitary during protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. «Mohammed Mehdi Karami and Sayed Mohammad Hosseinithe main perpetrators of the crime that led to the martyrdom of Rouhollah Ajamian were hanged this morning,” reported Mizan Online.
The two boys were accused of killing Ajamian, a member of the Bassidji militia linked to the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army. The events date back to November 3 and took place in Karaj, west of Tehran. The lower court sentenced the two men to death on December 4, and Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences on January 3.
“The most basic legal rights have not been respected,” some Iranian lawyers denounced, the BBC reported. “There is no room for legal discussion regarding their execution as they have been deprived of the minimum right to choose a lawyer,” lawyer Ali Mojtahedzadeh wrote on Twitter. Also on Twitter, lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, who was denied a court request to defend Karami in court, denounced that the young man was not allowed to meet his family before the hanging.
The executions came despite an intense campaign by NGOs calling on Tehran to overturn the sentences. In mid-December, Mehdi’s father, Mashallah Karami, released a video in which he and his wife pleaded with the authorities to have his son’s death sentence overturned.
دو هفته پیش بود پدر #محمدمهدی_کرمی از رئیس قوه قضائیه حکومتی کودککش التماس کرد پسر بیگناهش را نکشند. گفت دستفروشی میکند. مادرش خواهش کرد حکم اعدامش را لغو کنند. .#مهسا_امینیpic.twitter.com/LPyjKM5kw9
— Masih Alinejad ️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 7, 2023
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Who were Karami and Hossein?
Karami was an Iranian-Kurdish karate master who sported a tattoo of the Olympic rings on his arm. Hosseini volunteered with the children. The two, both in their twenties, died after weeks on death row after confessions were extracted “under torture” and at the end of a “show trial” denounced by activists and humanitarian organizations. Her family members never gave up, at least until this morning when they followed the inevitable. With the last two executions, the number of executions in the country has risen to four. According to the news agency for human rights activists (Hrana), at least 516 demonstrators have been killed in the crackdown on the demonstrations, including 70 minors. Almost 20,000 people were arrested and 68 members of the security staff were also killed. According to a count by France Presse, the judiciary has already approved the death sentences against 10 other demonstrators. Two of them have had their sentences upheld by the Supreme Court, six are awaiting retrial and the last two are open to appeal. Activists say dozens more face the death penalty.
The condemnation of the EU
Today’s signal from the regime to the “rioters” has shocked the international community. The European Union is “shocked” by the executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini. In a statement, Nabila Massrali, spokeswoman for the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, denounced the “new signal of the violent repression of demonstrations” and “again calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately end the highly reprehensible practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against demonstrators” and “immediately lift the death sentences recently imposed in connection with the demonstrations”.
Today I called for a stronger European and global response to the regime in Iran.
A regime that executes citizens who demand respect for women, life and freedom. A regime that provides drones used to kill Ukrainians.
A regime that must hold the world to account. pic.twitter.com/0SjcpJ0XjN
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) January 7, 2023
“Today I called for a stronger European and global response to the Iranian regime,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola wrote on Twitter. “A regime where citizens who demand respect for women, life and freedom are executed. A regime that supplies drones to kill Ukrainians. A regime that must hold the world to account.”
Detained students join activists on hunger strike
A group of university students and others jailed for taking part in street protests in Iran have started a hunger and thirst strike in jail against the hanging of protesters, joining a similar protest lasting about a week and joined by 15 activists is being held in Kachuei prison in Karaj on the outskirts of Tehran. This was revealed by the Student Union Council website, which says one of the last members of the protest is in prison Arjang Mortazavia computer science student who has already been expelled from the university and arrested after a police summons.
In Karaj prison – information that has been circulating for days on Iranian social media and the news agency Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) – fifteen activists have been on hunger and thirst strike since last week: They are protesting against the denial of basic rights, such as the right to freedom of movement such as the right to choose a lawyer, to medical treatment, to oppose unlawful trials and trials, to oppose executions, the use of torture and the worsening of prison conditions.
It’s between fifteen Armita Abbasi, who went missing for about ten days before it was revealed she had been hospitalized in critical condition, possibly following a rape. Also part of the group on hunger and thirst strike are the artists Elham Modarresi, Niloufar Shakeri, Fatemeh Harbi, Jasmin Hajmirza-Ahmadi, Fatemeh Nazarinejad, Hamideh Zarei, Marzieh Mirghassemi, Fatemeh Mosleh Heidarzadeh, Fatemeh Jamalpour, Niloufar Kordouni, Somayeh Massoumi and Ensieh Mousavi.
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Mobilize the stars
Cate Blanchett, Jason Momoa, Samuel L. Jackson, Jada Pinkett Smith and Bryan Cranston are among more than 50 actors and figures from the global entertainment industry who have come out to publicly support the campaign to end the executions by anti-protesters demands -regime in Iran. In a video message shared on social media – conceived and produced by Iranian-American screenwriter Nicole Najafi, director, writer and producer Ana Lily Amirpour and actress and writer Mozhan Marno’ – the stars are portrayed in silence while holding a sign with hold up the hashtag #StopExecutionsinIran. “We stand with the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom,” the video said. “Thousands of protesters were arrested. Some have already been executed. Many more are in danger. But the world is watching,” the campaign warns.
The text accompanying the campaign reads: “Since September 2022, the Iranian people have been leading a historic revolution to overthrow the brutal Iranian dictatorship. The Iranians protested in the streets with unfathomable courage. In response, the regime has killed more than 500 people, arrested more than 20,000 and is now turning to its latest tool of repression: executions. This is the regime’s last ditch effort to save itself and terrorize its own people into submission. But the Iranians will not back down. It is up to us, the international community, to take a stand against these human rights violations. By spreading awareness of what is happening, we are holding this cruel regime to account. Help us spread the word. Stand with the Iranian people fighting for democracy and fundamental freedoms. #Stop executions in Iran»