Iran’s wartime executions rise with killing of protester

Iran has carried out another execution tied to the nationwide protests in January, deepening fears among rights groups as the number of people they describe as political prisoners put to death continues to rise amid the war against Israel and the United States.

Ali Fahim, 23, was executed after being convicted over an attack on a Tehran base used by the Revolutionary Guards’ Basij militia during the unrest, according to rights groups that have tracked the case.

The judiciary’s Mizan Online website called him “one of the enemy elements in the terrorist riots” and said the execution was carried out after the supreme court upheld the original sentence.

Seven men, among them Mr Fahim, were handed death sentences in February in connection with the incident. Rights groups say four of them, including two teenagers, have now been executed, with the remaining three facing an immediate threat of execution.

During this period, four people have been executed over the protests, while six others have been put to death on charges of belonging to the banned opposition group People’s Mujahedin (MEK).

IHR said Mr Fahim and his co-defendants had been “subjected to torture and denied access to legal counsel”, and that they were condemned to death in a “grossly unfair” fast-track trial overseen by judge Abolqasem Salavati.

Mr Salavati was sanctioned by the United States in 2019, which said he was known as the “Judge of Death” because of his frequent use of capital punishment.

“These executions are part of the Islamic republic’s strategy of survival – waging war against its own people under the shadow of external conflict,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

“The international community must respond with urgency. The situation of prisoners and the regime’s systematic use of the death penalty must be made a central condition in any negotiations or engagement with the Islamic republic,” he added.

Mizan said Mr Fahim had been convicted of acting against Iran on behalf of “the Zionist regime and the United States”, and of entering a classified military site to seize weapons.

The nationwide demonstrations were met by what rights groups describe as a brutal state crackdown that left thousands of people dead.

Iran yesterday executed two men, Mohammad-Amin Biglari, 19, and Shahin Vahedparast, 30, and on Thursday put Amir Hossein Hatami, 18, to death, all after convictions in the same case.

The Iranian judiciary confirmed the executions, while the ages of the men were provided by rights groups.

Amnesty International has said the executions show the judiciary is “a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on those demanding fundamental political change”.

Iran on 19 March 19 also executed three men accused of killing police officers during the protests in January, in the first executions carried out in relation to the demonstrations.