Three men sentenced to death in Iran for their involvement in the killing of police officers during protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in the country last year were executed on Friday, the judiciary said.
Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi have been found guilty of “moharebeh” (“war against God”) and possession of a weapon during a demonstration in the city of Isfahan (centre), the information agency of the judiciary informed Authority Mizan Online.
The three men were arrested last November and sentenced to death in January. They were also found guilty of membership in “unlawful groups seeking to undermine the country’s security and collusion that led to crimes against internal security,” Mizan added.
“According to the evidence and the statements of the defendants, the shooting (of a firearm) by these three individuals resulted in the martyrdom of three members of the security forces,” Mizan Online added.
Majid Kazemi, whose relatives live in Australia, was the subject of a petition to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong asking for her support for an acquittal.
“Majid is only 30 years old. He is a loving, compassionate and strong-willed person. Like many other Iranians, he took part in peaceful protests to make his voice heard and demand change,” his cousin Mohammad Hashemi wrote in the text of the petition published on change.org.
Iran has been rocked by a protest movement since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, on September 16, 2022, three days after her arrest by morality police who accused her of violating the strict dress code for women in particular the wearing of the veil in the Islamic Republic.
“killing machine”
According to several human rights NGOs, including Amnesty International, Iran executes more convicts than any other country except China.
On May 9, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also denounced “the unbelievably high number” of executions in Iran this year, averaging more than ten a week.
In 2022, 582 people suffered the death penalty, 75% more than the year before, Iran Human Rights and another organization, Together against the Death Penalty (ECPM), based in Paris, reported in April.
But the pace of executions was even more intense in 2023: Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights has counted at least 218 executions since the beginning of the year.
At least 209 people have been executed since January 1, mostly for drug-related offences, according to the United Nations. The UN emphasizes that the number could be even higher.
“The government’s killing machine is picking up speed,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the IHR, on May 10. “Their aim is to intimidate people and their victims are the most vulnerable people in society.”