These are the last three names in a macabre list, which has continued to grow since the beginning of the revolt movement affecting the Islamic Republic of Iran. Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi and Saeed Yaghoubi, accused of being involved in the death of three members of the security forces during demonstrations, were sentenced to death at first instance on 9 January. The new sentences handed down bring the number of people who have received the death penalty in Iran to 17, since the uprising sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old student arrested by morality police for “wearing inappropriate clothes”. .
“France deplores the announcement of new death sentences by Iranian justice, which comes after the appalling executions of two demonstrators on January 7, denounced in a statement from the Quai d’Orsay, published on Monday. Death Sentences and Executions of Protest Participants […] cannot take the place of a response to the legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom.” The European Union, for its part, called two days earlier “for an immediate end to the highly reprehensible practice of pronouncing and carrying out death sentences against demonstrators”, as well as to “cancel the recent death sentences without delay”. In recent months, sanctions have also been taken: freezing of assets for a list of people and entities, ban on entering European territory or blocking exports to Iran of equipment that could be used for repressive purposes.
These successive convictions in Iran allow the authorities to instill fear among the population, and ultimately put an end to the popular uprising that is shaking the country. On December 8, Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old man, was the first to bear the brunt of this policy of terror: the Iranian courts had found him guilty of having “blocked a street in Tehran, aroused fear, deprived persons of liberty and security, and intentionally injured a security guard with a bladed weapon (knife)”. At the time, Amnesty International said it was “horrified” by the execution, which, according to the NGOhad intervened three weeks after “a sham trial contravening the most elementary rules of fairness”.
The cases of Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, both convicted in December of “enmity against God”, also illustrate this expeditious justice. In addition to the fact that neither of the two men had access to the lawyer of their choice, the latter were killed 18 and 13 days after their trial, while the Iranian penal code provides that the condemned have twenty days to call. Convicts are also under pressure, such as Sahand Nour Mohammadzadeh, a 26-year-old hanged for destroying highway railings and setting fire to garbage cans. In a recording released from Fashafouyeh prison, located in the south of Tehran, Sahand Nour Mohammadzadeh explained that he had been forced to declare himself guilty of “enmity against God” as a result of intimidation suffered during his detention.
According to human rights organisations, at least 80 other people are at risk of suffering the same fate in the coming days. Most Iranians on death row today are under 30, a concern Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty: “It’s young people who are being killed, they’re children. It’s frightening. It’s a whole generation that the state is destroying”. For his part, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron had said his “respect” and his “support” for the fight led by the Iranian women, during a major interview on France Inter on November 14.
