Saleh Mirhashemi (l-r), Said Jakobi and Majid Kasemi during their trials. The demonstrators have been executed in Iran after controversial trials. © Uncredited/Mizan News Agency/AP/dpa
After trials that have been widely criticized internationally, Iran executes three more demonstrators. Criticism is coming from Germany – and concerns about a convicted German-Iranian are growing.
Tehran - Iran executed three more participants in the mass protests against the state leadership on Friday. The men were executed in the morning, as the justice portal Misan reported. They were found guilty of killing three security forces in the metropolis of Isfahan during the nationwide demonstrations in the Islamic Republic in November. The allegations cannot be independently verified.
Those executed were Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kasemi and Said Jakobi. According to Islamic law in Iran, they were sentenced to death for "waging war against God". Until the very end, human rights activists and relatives had fought to prevent the execution. Amnesty International reported that the confessions were extracted under torture.
The goal is intimidation
For years, human rights activists have criticized the use of the death penalty in Iran. The execution of four protesters at the beginning of the year sparked an international outcry. According to critics, the state is pursuing the goal of intimidating the protest movement. While street protests decreased significantly after the executions, many are now expressing their protest in other forms. In the metropolises, for example, many women demonstratively ignore the headscarf requirement.
For days, the families had been fighting for the lives of the convicts. Amnesty circulated a handwritten note of the three men who were allegedly smuggled out of the detention center. "Don't let them kill us," the note read. A German-Iranian convicted in Iran is also threatened with execution. A revolutionary court had held 68-year-old Djamshid Sharmahd responsible for a terrorist attack in February, among other things.
The Foreign Office in Berlin condemned the executions. "The German government rejects the death penalty under all circumstances. We continue to call on Iran to immediately suspend this inhumane, cruel and degrading form of punishment," a ministry spokesman said. The EU also called on Iran. to immediately cease the imposition and execution of death sentences against demonstrators. The Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights, Luise Amtsberg, also expressed dismay.
Two EU citizens also executed
For weeks, human rights activists in Iran have been talking about a wave of executions. According to UN estimates, more than 200 people have already been executed this year. According to a report, the number of recorded executions in Iran rose from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022. The executions of two EU citizens had also triggered international criticism.
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The wave of protests in autumn was triggered by the death of the young Iranian Kurdish Jina Mahsa Amini. She died in police custody in mid-September after being arrested by the morality police for violating Islamic dress codes. Her death sparked the most serious protests in decades - first as part of a women's movement against compulsory headscarves, then against the entire Islamic system. Iran's political and clerical leadership is under pressure. More than 500 demonstrators were killed during the protests, according to human rights organizations. Dpa
