Iran | Executed Protester Reza Rasaei Buried Under Tight Security

Reza Rasaei, a follower of the Yarsan religion and a detainee from the 2022 protests, was executed on Tuesday and subsequently buried under stringent security measures.

IranWire reports that security agents prevented Rasaei’s body from being buried in the Yarasan people’s cemetery.

Authorities instructed the Rasai family that they could not bury him in Sahneh, his hometown, but instead had to lay him to rest along a remote road.

Rasaei was executed at dawn on August 6, at Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah. Just an hour after his execution, his body was buried on the outskirts of Kermanshah, far from Sahneh, in a ceremony attended only by close family members, including his mother. Security forces restricted access to the burial site, preventing others from attending and saying their final goodbyes.

Sources also indicate that Rasaei was denied a final meeting with his family. Fatemeh Heydari, a member of the families of victims from the 2022 protests, tweeted that security officers sealed off Reza Rasai’s father's house at 2 a.m., and the family was informed of his execution only later that morning.

Civil activist Ebrahimullah Bakhshi highlighted the oppressive conditions faced by Rasaei’s family leading up to the execution. Bakhshi reported on X that security agents had raided a relative’s workplace a month prior, seizing electronic equipment and intensifying pressure on the family. The restrictions included limited personal visits, restricted phone calls, and intimidation of those around Rasai.

Rasaei was the 10th individual executed in connection with the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

Before Rasaei’s execution, death sentences had been carried out for Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard, Mohammad Hosseini, Mohammad Mehdi Karmi, Majid Kazemi, Saeed Yaqoubi, Saleh Mirhashmi, Milad Zohrehvand, and Mohammad Qobadloo.

Rasaei's execution follows a rapid legal process that has raised serious concerns about due process.

Mohammad Rasool Haqnajati, head of the second branch of the Criminal Court of Kermanshah, issued the death sentence in October 2023.

On December 31, 2023, he forwarded Rasaei's case to the Execution of Sentences Department of Kermanshah province, two weeks after Iran's Supreme Court had approved the sentence.

Rasai was sentenced to death for the alleged murder of Nader Bairami, the IRGC's intelligence chief in Sahneh City.

However, human rights organizations have highlighted significant issues with the case. The sentence was reportedly issued under pressure from the head of the judiciary despite a lack of evidence to prove the crime.

Rasaei's conviction was based on confessions that human rights advocates claim were obtained through torture and fabrication over several months. No concrete evidence has been presented to support the charges against him.

Source: iranwire.com, Staff, August 6, 2024

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