Iranian authorities executed five people including a woman on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, in the Central Prison of Mashhad, known as Vakilabad Prison.
Three of those executed are identified as Ardeshir Bahadori, Ali Gholami Aghuyi, and Marzieh Ebrahimipour.
Their executions have not yet been announced by the state media at the time of publishing this news.
All the five were charged with murder.
Judge Mohammad Reza Dashtban, the “Deputy Prosecutor of the Khorasan Razavi Center,” was present during the execution of the prisoners.
As a consequence of the regime’s failure to categorize deliberate murders according to their degrees, anyone committing murder is sentenced to death, regardless of their motives.
The executed woman, Marzieh Ebrahimipour, a resident of the Safar Ghale village near the city of Dargaz of Razavi Khorasan province, northeast Iran, was arrested in 2012 on charges of murdering an individual by the name of Mohammad Rousta. Following her arrest by state security forces and after being interrogated, she was sentenced to death by the Branch Four of the Razavi Khorasan First Criminal Court. This ruling was upheld by Branch Two of the regime’s Supreme Court and the dossier was transferred to Mashhad’s judiciary branch to be implemented.
This is the 107th woman hanged since Hassan Rouhani, the mullahs’ president, took office in Iran.
Ardeshir Bahadori was arrested in 2017 on charges of murder during a street fight and eventually sentenced to death following judicial procedures. This ruling was upheld in the regime’s Supreme Court and the dossier transferred to Mashhad’s judiciary branch to be implemented. For reasons that remain unknown Bahadori was transferred from Bojnourd Prison to Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad for his execution.
Mohammad Reza Dashtban, the criminal judge and deputy public prosecutor of Razavi Khorasan province, was present during Tuesday morning’s execution.
At least 23 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of August.
An Iranian minor offender was hanged on august 17, in a northwestern prison. Arsalan Yasini was 17 when arrested 12 years ago.
Arsalan Yasini had been kept in the correction facility for a year after his arrest for the murder of his grandparents. He was hanged because those who pressed charges against him, including his own father, did not agree to halt the execution. Iran has the highest executions per capita in the world and continues to execute minor offenders.
Executions are a means of survival for the mullahs’ regime in Iran. It has not let up on executions and detentions despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Iranian courts are notorious for their lack of due process and offenders are usually coerced into making confessions against themselves.
From 2014 to the end of 2017, the mullahs’ regime executed at least 25 people for crimes committed when they were minors, according to Amnesty International and other human rights groups. In 2018 alone, the regime executed seven people for crimes they allegedly committed while under the age of 18.
