Death penalty

At least 31 people were executed in July. 24 of those were convicted of murder, but it’s important to remember that the Iranian regime secures convictions using unfair trials and confessions extracted under torture.

However, seven people were executed for offences that are not capital offences under international law and some that are not crimes at all.

On July 15, Amnesty International said: “There has been an alarming escalation in the use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups in Iran.”

Two Kurdish political prisoners were executed on July 13, Urmia prison, West Azerbaijan, after confessing under torture in 2015. The lawyer of Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah said they were innocent and that no evidence had been produced against them.

On July 8, Hossein Habibi Shahri, Morteza was hanged in Central Mashhad Prison, northeastern Iran, for “consumption of alcohol”, being in possession of alcoholic beverages, and driving without a licence. He’d been in prison for two years at the time of his execution.

 

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The Judiciary Spokesperson also confirmed that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence for young protesters from the November 2019 uprising  – Amir Hossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saied Tamjidi – whose sentences were delayed after the initial ruling caused outrage online, especially after the UN said they’d received “unfair trials” and were tortured into confessing.

The Supreme Court earlier upheld the death sentences of five other protesters – Mohammad Bastami, Hadi Keyani (Kiani), Abbas Mohammadi, Majid Nazari Kondori, and Mehdi Salehi- Qaleh Shahrokhi – arrested during the January 2018 protests. They were given “two death sentences” each for “waging war against God” and “taking up arms against the state”.

Over the past few years, the Iranian regime has routinely upheld execution sentences for peaceful protest, financial crimes, and, honestly, whatever they can get away with under vague security charges, in order to suppress the people and ensure that the regime remains in power.

Freedoms

Meanwhile, the regime cracked down on freedom of expression by firing tear gas into a crowd of peaceful protesters in Behbahan, arresting 50 of them. This is especially worrying because dissenters are often given heavy flogging and prison sentences and are treated exponentially worse inside the prison.