An unprecedented wave of executions is sweeping Iran as the ayatollah regime's judiciary continues its brutal suppression of last year's protest movement that erupted after the war with Israel.
Iran International reported Tuesday that a revolutionary court in northeastern Iran sentenced Hadi Abbasian, 38, to death this week after he was accused of actively supporting the nationwide protests held in January.
The draconian sentence was delivered to Abbasian on Sunday inside Shirvan Prison, months after his arrest in May in the Farhang Shahr district of Shirvan, following his posting of videos on social media calling on citizens to demonstrate against the regime.
According to information obtained by human rights organizations and informed sources cited in the report, the circumstances of Abbasian's arrest and detention expose the dark face of the country's enforcement system. Abbasian was subjected to severe and brutal torture on the first day of his arrest, until his health deteriorated significantly and he was rushed to hospital for urgent treatment, from where he was transferred directly to Shirvan Prison.
Since falling into the authorities' hands, his family has been denied all visits or contact with him, and the authorities applied heavy pressure and prevented them from hiring a private lawyer to represent him. The indictment that led the court to impose the death penalty, as well as the incriminating evidence allegedly presented against him, were never made public, as is customary in the secret and swift trials of regime opponents.
The harsh sentencing of Abbasian fits into a broad, accelerating and alarming wave of executions of detainees linked to the January protests, indicating the regime's decision to crush every trace of opposition. Just this past Monday, Alireza Sepahi and Alireza Raisi were executed at the central prison in Isfahan in connection with the mass demonstrations held in the city. The two were among a group of 12 defendants sentenced to death in the high-profile case known as "Alihani Square," of whom seven have already been executed. Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and lawyer Shirin Ebadi revealed a chilling detail about Sepahi's final hours, writing on social media that he married his fiancée inside the prison walls just one day before his execution.
The wave of executions is spreading at a dizzying pace of less than a week. Days earlier, this past Saturday, Sabash Jamshidi Kheirabadi was executed after being arrested at protests in Shahrqord. The Iranian judiciary claimed Jamshidi was convicted of "moharebeh", meaning "enmity against G-d", alleging he fired at security forces, but neither his arrest nor trial was reported in the media before the execution announcement. They are joined by Ali Hemati and Majid Nikhandish, who were executed on September 30 after being arrested at protests in Mashhad, under vague accusations of involvement in the deaths of four security personnel and participation in an attempted coup, without a single court document or independent evidence supporting the claims being published. In total, at least five people arrested at the January protests have been executed since late September.
These extreme measures are arousing shock and widespread condemnation around the world. Human rights organizations and UN experts are warning against the cynical and brutal use of death sentences against citizens exercising their basic right to protest, and point to a consistent pattern of action including extraction of confessions under torture, denial of basic rights and refusal to allow fair legal representation. Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, sharply warned of the violation of legal standards in these cases. In parallel, a joint statement by 46 countries at the UN Human Rights Council last week demanded that the authorities in Tehran immediately halt the wave of executions, which has already led to the deaths of more than 30 protesters since the beginning of the crackdown, while the organization Iran Human Rights warns that at least 100 additional detainees are currently in immediate mortal danger and awaiting the gallows.
