Iran uses the death penalty against dissidents to terrorize the public
Dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are currently on death row in Iran.
These prisoners include dissidents, prisoners of conscience, as well as protesters arrested during anti-regime protests.
The Iranian regime’s use of the death penalty against prisoners is intended to intimidate and prevent protests in Iran.
This report lists the names of several political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who have been sentenced to death for peacefully exercised their human rights:
Iran has also sentenced to death a local boxing champion over his role in 2019 protests. Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, 26, was sentenced to death after being convicted of arson and destruction of government buildings. He had been detained in February 2020 and one of the charges against him was taking part in protests in November 2019 sparked by a sudden fuel price rise.
Abbas Deris, a member of Iran’s ethnic Arab minority in Khuzestan Province, has been reportedly sentenced to death for taking part in the country’s violently repressed November 2019 protests.
According to local sources, the information used by the prosecution against him had only been conveyed verbally by judicial authorities to the defense and that lawyers’ requests for written documents were all denied.
After learning about Abbas Deris’ death sentence, his wife suffered a stroke and died. Their orphaned children now live with their grandparents.
Deris was arrested with his brother, Mohsen Deris. After a trial sorely lacking in internationally upheld standards of due process, Abbas Deris was sentenced to death on the charges of “waging war against the state,” “disrupting order,” and “being an accomplice in the murder of a member of the police special forces unit.”
His brother Mohsen Deris was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly being an accomplice in the murder.
Death sentences against five men arrested in Isfahan Province, central Iran, in connection with nationwide protests during December 2017-January 2018, have been upheld by the Supreme Court.
The 2nd Branch of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court has sentenced Hadi Kiani, Mehdi Salehi, Mohammad Bastami, Majid Nazari, and Abbas Mohammadi to death in March 2020.
They were tortured during interrogations to make confessions.
The revolutionary court had brought eight accounts of vaguely defined national security charges against the five Iranian death row protesters including “corruption on earth,” “moharebeh” (enmity against God), and “baghi” (armed rebellion) through the use of firearms.
In Vakilabad prison in Mashhad, prisoners of conscience Issa Mohammadi, Hakim Azim Gargij, Taj Mohammad Khormali, Abdolrahman Gargij and Hossein Varasteh Soleimani are also on death row.
The Sunni prisoners have been sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad on charges of “Baghi through membership in the Al-Furqan group.” All of them have denied the charges. They were denied access to a lawyer of their choice during the trial.
Seven Sunni political prisoners Anwar Khezri, Kamran Sheikhe, Farhad Salimi, Qassem Abasteh, Khosrow Besharat, Ayub Karimi, and Davood Abdullahi, who are being held in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, are among those on death row.
Peaceful protesters executed in Iran
Two protesters in Isfahan and Shiraz have already been hanged by the regime. Mostafa Salehi was executed on August 5, 2020, for his role in Iran’s December 2017/January 2018 protests in Isfahan. The father of two said he was tortured to confess to a murder he did not commit. He maintained his innocence until his death.
Another protester Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari was executed in Iran on September 12, 2020, despite a high-profile international campaign calling for the sentence not to be carried out. The regime had accused Navid of killing a security agent, a charge he vehemently denied and said was forced to confess to under torture.
Final word
Iran Human Rights Monitor urges the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and all human rights bodies, as well as the European Union and its member states, to take urgent action to save the lives of political prisoners who are at risk of execution in Iran.
