Iranian authorities executed a political prisoner from Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority.
Political prisoners, Jasem Heydari, was executed along with three other prisoners on Sunday February 28.
Jasem Heydari was convicted of “armed insurrection” (baghi) by a Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz and sentenced to death in connection with his alleged collaboration with groups opposed to the Iranian regime.
The Supreme Court upheld the verdict in November 2020.
Following his arrest in December 2017, he was held for months in solitary confinement without access to his family or lawyer and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
Jasem Heydari was a refugee in Austria before his arrest, but after returning to the country, he was arrested in Tehran and transferred to Evin Prison.
Intelligence agents subjected him to physical and psychological torture in order to force him to make ‘forced confessions’.
To put more pressure on the political prisoner, the Ahvaz Intelligence Ministry agents arrested his 50-year-old mother, Marzieh Heydari, on March 11, 2018. Ms. Heidari was transferred to Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, and later released on bail.
Jasem Heydari and four other Arab prisoners Ali Khasraji, Hossein Seilavi, Ali Motiri, and Ali Mojaddam sewed their lips and started a hunger strike on January 23, 2021, in protest at their prison conditions, denial of family visits, and the ongoing threat of execution.
Ahwazi Arab prisoner Ali Motairi was executed while on hunger strike on January 28, 2021. According to Amnesty International he was also sentenced to death despite serious due process violations, including allegations of torture and forced “confessions”.
The clerical regime seeks to prevent escalation of popular protests by these executions, extensive arbitrary arrests, and other repressive measures.
Iran HRM once again calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council and other institutions defending human rights to take urgent action to save the lives of Iranian prisoners on death row. The Iranian regime’s dossier of human rights violations must be referred to the UN Security Council. The leaders and officials of the clerical regime in Iran must face justice for four decades of committing crimes against humanity.
