In September, a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini died three days after being detained by Iranian police. Since Amini’s death, protesters have taken to the streets to call for a change in Iran’s direction and an end to discrimination. and state impunity for weeks. Today, the Iranian government is cracking down on those participating in the protests, leading to violence and the deaths of protesters.
But a false claim that Iran plans to execute 15,000 protesters went viral on social media this week. The message came here as tweets and infographics began circulating, adding a symbol that read: “Iran sentences 15,000 protesters to death as a ‘hard lesson’ for all rebels. “
While the claim is accurate, prominent public figures, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as actors Viola Davis and Sophie Turner, shared the post on their social media.
The challenge is that whether the Iranian parliament, or majlis, voted in favor of the death penalty for protesters, is not up to them. what Parliament voted for; the most recent figures on imprisonment and death; and how the global reacts.
Although the figures are difficult to determine due to the lack of independent reporting in Iran, 15,915 protesters have been arrested and 351 have been killed since the protests began, according to the most recent figures from the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA. On February 3, Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur for human rights on Iran, also told the UN Security Council that some estimates of detained protesters numbered 14,000, as CNN reported.
The arrested protesters come with Toomaj Salehi, a rapper whose music incited rebellion; Iranian bloodhounds Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who helped spread Amini’s story; and Hossein Ronaghi, a prominent blogger and activist who went on hunger strike to protest his arrest.
Hamedi and Mohammadi have been held at Tehran’s Evin crime complex since last September, while Ronaghi’s circle of relatives say she has lost contact with him since he was taken to hospital, claiming his legs were damaged at the prison.
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Two weeks ago, 227 members of Iran’s 290-seat parliament signed an open letter to the country’s judiciary asking it to sentence protesters who had been arrested to death, as first reported via Iran’s IRNA news agency. In a statement, Iranian lawmakers called for harsh punishment for those who incited the riots and called them “mohareb. “In Islamic or Sharia law, “mohareb” means “enemy of God” and carries the death penalty.
But Mizan, a news company in the country, reports that so far 3 protesters have been sentenced to death in Tehran by Iran’s Revolutionary Court since the motion erupted. The first conviction went to a protester accused of disturbing public order and peace after being accused of setting fire to a government building. The sentences are initial and subject to appeal, but according to the capital, Iran executes more people than any other country in the world.
On Sunday, Mizan also reported that five other anonymous defendants had been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for endangering national security and disturbing public order. These sentences may also be appealed. Last week, judicial leader Gholam Hossein Ejei issued a statement saying the protesters had “disturbed people’s safety, disrupted their livelihoods and insulted their sanctity” and would be treated “firmly and solidly based on law and justice,” according to the Islamic Republic’s official news agency. .
Legal experts say that in Iran it is highly unlikely that justice will be sought for those killed or that detained protesters will get a fair trial. Lawyers are not free to protect politically motivated clients and are rarely faced with bogus fees. The judiciary itself is not independent: political and devout trials are decided through intelligence agents and agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who tried in Iran in the past. Rights teams also allege that detainees are coerced or tortured into offering false confessions based on fabricated evidence in mock trials.
Read more: What shows the good fortune of women-led protests over Iran’s future
Last week, the UN Human Rights Council called on Iran to avoid using the death penalty as a tool to quell protests and to release protesters without delay. Protests, and in particular women human rights defenders, who have been arrested and imprisoned for ending systematic and systematic discriminatory laws, policies and practices, will be the main target,” they said.
More than 40 countries have submitted a proposal through Germany and Iceland for the Human Rights Council to hold a special consultation on human rights in Iran. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply criticized the Iranian government, saying Germany was “side by side with the Iranian people. “
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the crackdown by Iranian authorities was “unprecedented” and called for “a strong diplomatic reaction and sanctions” against those responsible. Similarly, the European Union and Britain announced new sanctions against Iranian officials and entities. Worried about repressing protesters. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the sanctions sent “a transparent message to the Iranian regime” that “violent repression of protests will have to be prevented and freedom of expression will have to be respected. “Urging Tehran to end the crackdown, EU foreign policy leader Josep Borrell said in a statement that “the EU strongly condemns the violent and unacceptable repression of protesters. “
Iran executes more people than any country in China: Since 2010, another 6,885 people have been executed in the Islamic Republic, mostly by hanging, according to the Human Rights Organization of Iran. Most of those executed are convicted of homicide and drug-related offences. Last year, Iran executed 333 prisoners, adding at least two youths and 10 women.
Capital punishment has deep ties to the regime. In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were executed under the command of Ebrahim Raeesi, the current president of Iran, its judicial leader at the time, and the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Human Rights Watch said mass executions were crimes against humanity and were among the most heinous crimes under foreign law.