2020 the year of executions in Iran: Murder is Khamenei’s weapon to face Iranian people’s revolution

Ali Ragab

A report by the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), revealed the death rates under the regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which reached about 277 people in 2020, placing Iran at the forefront of the countries that carry out executions in the world.

The PMOI reported that the mullah regime executed at least 277 people in 2020, including 12 political prisoners.

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian opposition abroad, strongly condemned the continuation of the criminal acts of execution and called for immediate action by the United Nations and international human rights bodies, as well as the European Union, to save the lives of prisoners awaiting execution.

Rajavi reiterated the necessity for an international delegation to visit prisons in Iran and meet with prisoners to refer the issue of systematic human rights violations by the mullah regime to the UN Security Council and to bring its leaders to justice for having committed crimes against humanity for more than four decades.

Of course, the information gathered cannot reflect the reality of what is happening inside Iran, because a tight security atmosphere prevails in the country and human rights activists are denied access to real statistics. On the other hand, many executions in Iran are carried out in secret, so the real statistics should be considered much more.

With regard to the executions that have been carried out, issues such as widespread violations of fair trial principles, public executions, and execution of juvenile offenders should be emphasized, which led to the Iranian regime’s condemnation of human rights and international institutions.

Execution of political prisoners

The executions of protesters and political prisoners last year are a clear example of how the regime has used the death penalty as a tool to suppress people.

In recent months, death sentences were passed on those arrested during the protests of December 2018, August 2018 and November 2019 in different cities in Iran. In Tehran, three protesters were sentenced to death in November 2019. In Isfahan, five protesters were sentenced to death in December 2018.

In the same context, Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old sports hero in Shiraz, was arrested after the August 2018 uprisings and was executed by hanging on September 12, 2020.

Earlier in August, another protester, Mustafa Salehi, who was arrested in December 2018, was executed.

In a related context, political prisoner Mustafa Selimi was one of dozens of prisoners who escaped from Saqz prison on March 27, 2020, following protests, but he was re-arrested and executed two weeks later on April 11, 2020.

Also, two Kurdish political prisoners, Diaku Rasulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdullah, were executed at Urmia prison on the morning of July 14.

The two aforementioned prisoners were sentenced to death on the basis of forced confessions obtained under torture.

In the same context, Kurdish political prisoner Hedayat Abdullah Pour was executed by bullets on May 11, 2020.

A Baloch political prisoner named Abdul Basit Dhani was executed at Zahedan Central Prison on April 23, 2020. He himself said before his execution that he was subjected to brutal torture to force him to confess.

The regime also carried out the execution of Ruhollah Zam on December 12, 2020, in order to prevent the occurrence of the uprising by the citizens by creating an atmosphere of terror and intimidation.

At Wakil Abad prison in the city of Mashhad, three Sunni prisoners were executed, Hamid Rast Bala, Kajir Sa’ad and Mohammad Ali Arayesh, on December 31, 2020, on charges of fighting.

Execution of juvenile offenders

The Iranian regime also continued to carry out the death penalty against juvenile offenders, in violation of its international obligations. In 2020, at least six young people have been executed.

Majid Esmailzadeh, a convicted juvenile who was executed at Ardabil Central Prison on April 18, 2020, was tortured at the Investigation Department to confess to the murder. Esmailzadeh, who was 16 at the time of the alleged crime, was unable to obtain adequate legal services due to the poverty of his family, and the assigned lawyer never answered the family’s calls.

In the same context, Shayan Saeedpour was executed on April 21, 2020 for a crime he committed before he was 18 years old. He was one of the prisoners who escaped from Saqz prison on March 27, 2020, after protesting over prison conditions and fearing the spread of the corona virus. He was arrested again on April 3, 2020.

In addition, Daniel Zeinolabedini, a juvenile under sentence of death at Mahabad prison, was beaten to death by the guards.

Execution of women

At least ten women were executed in Iran in the past year. The Iranian regime holds the largest record of executing women in the world. In Iran, many women convicted of murder are themselves victims of violence and committed murder in self-defense, and they were sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials.

A member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Hossein Daie el-Eslam, considered that the execution process is still one of the tools of oppression and intimidation of citizens in Iran by the mullah regime. In 2020, the regime carried out more executions for fear of an uprising against it. According to human rights organizations, Iran tops the list of countries with the highest number of executions.