At dawn on Thursday, December 8, 2022, 23-year-old Iranian Mohsen Shekari was executed in Tehran. He was arrested on September 25 during anti-regime protests that have gripped Iran since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini. Eight weeks later he was sentenced to death and hanged for “war against God” (moharebeh). His family wanted to appeal his sentence.
The images of his trial, which took place behind closed doors without a lawyer, broadcast by Iranian television, show his astonished gaze, which cries out injustice and will never leave us. This look that makes us witness the nightmare is also that of Majidreza Rahnavard, who was executed in Mashad on December 12, and of Mahan Sadrat Madani, who is now awaiting execution, as well as 11 other demonstrators who were arrested by the Revolutionary Court of Justice were sentenced to death, including artist and theater actor Hossein Mohammadi.
This body, which is illegal under the laws of the Islamic Republic, as lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh reminds us, operates under a procedure and charges (“war against God”, “corruption on earth”) that are an insult to humanity. Lawyers who appeared to defend the protesters were arrested and held incommunicado. Court-appointed lawyers transmit violence and instructions to the court.
The Iranian state against its own people
55 demonstrators, including three minors, are on trial and currently face the death penalty. Among them the rapper Toumaj Salehi, a figure of resistance and commitment, but also Hamid Ghareh-Hassanlou, a doctor accused of the death of a militiaman he helped. Face this new terror, on the streets and online, Iranian women don’t lower your head, but unite in one slogan: “Behind each of us who dies, a thousand other hearts beat”
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and several regime officials have commended the judicial authorities for their diligence. The horrifying spectacle of these murders marks a turning point in repression. The Iranian people have taken to the streets to demand regime change and have refused to leave the country for three months.
In the face of this unprecedented revolutionary movement, the Iranian state has waged war against its own people (Cities in Kurdistan are literally under siege). It also supports other murderous wars, as exemplified by the Russian use of Iranian drones in the destruction of civilian life in Ukraine.
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