A man by the name of Jamal Haji Zavareii was executed on Friday, June 21, in an unknown location in Tehran.
Jamal Haji Zavareii, 47, a former employee of the IRGC Aerospace, had been arrested on September 5, 2017, along with his wife Leila Tajik, on the charge of “spying for an enemy state.”
Prior to his execution, Jamal Haji Zavareii was being held in one of the safe houses of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a place called the “death cell.”
He had been under interrogation for a long time, and had been severly tortured by various methods, including electric shocks.
Leila Tajik is sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment and is held at Kachouii Prison in Karaj. She has two teenage children and has been threatened repeatedly with their arrest.
The couple were not allowed to have a defense lawyer of their own choice during their legal proceedings.
Leila Tajik suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and is denied access to proper medical treatment in prison.
Other executions carried out recently
The death sentences of five inmates including a woman were carried out on June 19, 2019. Another three inmates were hanged in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj on June 12, 2019. Another convict was hanged in the Prison of Ardabil. A man, married with three children, was hanged in the Prison of Gorgan on June 9, 2019.
According to the IranHRM annual report 2018, at least 285 people were executed in that year, 11 of them in public. They included 10 political prisoners and at least 4 women. Six individuals were executed for crimes they allegedly committed as minors.
The death penalty has served as a tool for the Iranian regime to hold its grab on power. The Iranian regime uses executions to silence a disgruntled public the majority of whom live under the poverty line, are unemployed and deprived of freedom of expression.
