RAGE AND GRIEF CONFRONT NEW EXECUTIONS BY IRAN’S THEOCRATIC REGIME
At dawn of Friday May 19, at Isfahan’s Dastgerd Prison in central Iran, Iran’s filthy mullah regime executed Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaghoubi and quickly buried them. The three men had joined protests during the months of the Women-Life-Freedom uprising. They were rounded up in arbitrary arrests, convicted in sham, torture-tainted trials based on forced then retracted “confessions” (hear Majid Kazemi’s chilling description)[i].
In the days before their execution, family members and many others protested in front of Dastgerd Prison at night and were attacked by the regime’s thugs. A handwritten note from the three condemned men, smuggled out of prison, read “Don’t let them kill us”, and was signed “Children of Iran”. It was shared worldwide and inspired many expressions of support, including the publication of this letter.
Mothers of protesters previously murdered by the regime in Sanandaj, in the province of Kurdistan, released a video of support, holding the photos of their murdered children. By May 17, with executions expected the next morning, the sidewalks around Dastgerd Prison were full, and the streets and highways leading to this dungeon were bumper-to-bumper with hundreds of cars to prevent prosecutors and execution staff from arriving. Security forces attacked them, including with gunfire, but people stayed through the night. Similar protests took place in Tehran (Iran’s capital city) and Sanandaj.
However, the IRI is out to exact revenge for the recent uprising and spread terror to silence further dissent and resistance. The executions of the three men were carried out two days later on May 19.
At dawn of Friday May 19, at Isfahan’s Dastgerd Prison in central Iran, Iran’s filthy mullah regime executed Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaghoubi and quickly buried them. The three men had joined protests during the months of the Women-Life-Freedom uprising. They were rounded up in arbitrary arrests, convicted in sham, torture-tainted trials based on forced then retracted “confessions” (hear Majid Kazemi’s chilling description)[i].
In the days before their execution, family members and many others protested in front of Dastgerd Prison at night and were attacked by the regime’s thugs. A handwritten note from the three condemned men, smuggled out of prison, read “Don’t let them kill us”, and was signed “Children of Iran”. It was shared worldwide and inspired many expressions of support, including the publication of this letter.
Mothers of protesters previously murdered by the regime in Sanandaj, in the province of Kurdistan, released a video of support, holding the photos of their murdered children. By May 17, with executions expected the next morning, the sidewalks around Dastgerd Prison were full, and the streets and highways leading to this dungeon were bumper-to-bumper with hundreds of cars to prevent prosecutors and execution staff from arriving. Security forces attacked them, including with gunfire, but people stayed through the night. Similar protests took place in Tehran (Iran’s capital city) and Sanandaj.
However, the IRI is out to exact revenge for the recent uprising and spread terror to silence further dissent and resistance. The executions of the three men were carried out two days later on May 19.
When news of the executions spread, protests broke out in many cities, particularly in Tehran and Isfahan. From apartment windows in Tehran, chants rang out: “Death to the Dictator.” In Zahedan, capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, hundreds of marchers chanted, “We don’t want the Republic of Executions” and “There are a thousand others behind every person killed!”
Below: Students at Beheshti University protest executions, May 20
As we wrote last week, the horrific surge of executions in Iran continues. As of May 19, 2023, the regime has murdered at least 264 people this year[ii], or almost two per day. Most of the executions are for the catch-all “drug-related” charges. Among those who continue to face imminent danger of execution are six Arab activists in Ahwaz, a majority Arab area, and at least six Baluchi protesters from the Fall 2022 uprising. And there are many more in the gruesome execution “pipeline”.
Protests have been called for May 20 by the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims in scores of cities worldwide under the theme of “United Against Executions in Iran.” Stay tuned for reports and plans from the IEC.
We Demand:
Stop the executions!
Free Iran's political prisoners now!
No US threats or war moves against Iran!
[i]On November 16, 2022, a large number of protesters were caught up in a dragnet, all arbitrarily charged with the shooting death of two Basijis (plainclothes militiamen) and one cop at a protest in the “Isfahan House” district. The trials presented no evidence linking these men or other defendants to the killing nor that they were armed, only confessions obtained through horrific torture and threats against their families, which they retracted in court. None of the defendants were allowed to choose their own lawyer. They were convicted of “Waging war on God” in a trial that lasted 4 days. “More executions of protesters in Iran imminent after sham trials”, Center for Human Rights in Iran, May 17 2023;Iran executes three men accused over anti-government protests”, The Guardian, May 19, 2023
[ii] Daily update on iranhr.net; IRI does not publicize many of its executions, especially in oppressed nationality regions, so this statistic, based on media reports and internal contacts, is conservative.