Iran | New Wave of Political Prisoner Death Sentences

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 18, 2024: At the same time as the drastic execution hike in Iran, a new wave of death sentences have been issued against at least eight protesters and political prisoners in the past week. Furthermore, the death sentences of four Baluch political prisoners have been sent for implementation.

Iran Human Rights considers the recent wave of death sentences to be a warning against hasty and imminent implementation of their executions with the aim of instilling societal fear, and calls on the people of Iran and the international community to prevent further death sentences and executions with appropriate reactions.

The organisation also warns that more executions will be carried out in the shadow of the media’s diverted attention to domestic and international crises. It is therefore crucial for the media and public to pay particularly close attention to human rights violations, particularly the death penalty.

IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "The relatively low political cost of executing hundreds of ordinary crime prisoners in the past months has prompted the authorities to intensify the execution of protesters and political prisoners.” He added: “The Islamic Republic, which is going through the most critical period of its rule, can only survive by resorting to repression and executions. Raising the political cost through popular protests, civil society campaigns and a stronger response from the international community can stop the state's execution machine. In order to prevent large-scale executions, an appropriate reaction must be shown to each execution."

On 13 November, six “Woman, Life, Freedom” protesters were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for participation in murder by Branch 13 of the Tehran Criminal Court. In a case known as Ekbatan (neighbourhood in Tehran where it took place), Milad Armoun, Alireza Kafayi, Amir Mohammad Khosheghbal, Navid Najaran, Hossein Nemati and Alireza Barmazpournak are accused of injuring an IRGC member named Arman Aliverdi on 26 October 2022 which led to his death two days later. According to one of their lawyers, the “the head of the branch disagreed with this ruling and issued a minority vote.” Some of the defendants in the case were also indicted for charges of moharebeh (enmity against god) by the Revolutionary Court.

At least four of the defendants’ torture-tainted confessions were televised prior to any legal proceedings and around a dozen defendants were forced to participate in a reconstruction of the crime scene in December 2022. They are currently held in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.

Furthermore, Kurdish political prisoner Varisheh Moradi was sentenced to death for charges of baghy (armed rebellion) by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by “death judge” Salavati on 10 November 2024. She was arrested in Sanandaj on 1 August 2023 and subsequently transferred to Evin Prison where she is still held.

Varisheh is the third female political prisoner to receive the death penalty for baghy charges in 2024. In July, Sharifeh Mohammadi was sentenced to death by Branch One of the Rasht Revolutionary Court and Pakhshan Azizi received her sentence from Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

On 17 November, state media reported that a man only named as “Mohammad Mehdi S” was sentenced to qisas for the murder of IRGC member Rasoul Doustmohammadi, 30 months imprisonment and diya (blood money) for the injury of another IRGC member and another 30 months and 74 lashes for the possession of inflammable and incendiary materials” by the Mashhad Criminal Court. The alleged offences took place in Mashhad in the early days of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests. The unidentified protester was arrested on 23 September 2022 and alleged to have “confessed” to the charges and is held in Mashhad Central (Vakil Abad) Prison.

Four Baluch political prisoners named Eido Shehbakhsh, Abdolghani Shehbakhsh, Abdolrahim Ghanbarzehi and Soleiman Shehbakhsh were sentenced to death for charges of baghy for “forming and membership in anti-revolution terrorist groups” by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on 4 February 2023. Their sentences were subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court and sent for implementation in late October.

Eido and Abdolghani who are the first defendants in the case, were previously cleared of the charges and released but later rearrested by the IRGC Intelligence Organisation. Soleiman Shehbakhsh, the fourth defendant in the case, is reported to have been 12 years old at the time of arrest. All four men are reported to have been severely tortured to extract false self-incriminating confessions. They are currently held in Ghezel Hesar Prison.

The four Baluch men and Varshieh Moradi are members of the “No Death Penalty Tuesdays” abolitionist movement which began in response to the weekly group executions in Iranian prisons and now takes place in 25 prisons across the country.

It is important to note that death penalty cases against political prisoners are processed without due process and fair trial rights in courts that are under the influence of security institutions, and torture-tainted forced confessions are used as the primary method of proving the defendants’ guilt.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, November 18, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Instagram | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog