Ayoub Karimi and 6 Other Prisoners Executed in Qazalhasar; Hani Albooshahbazi Executed in Sepidar Prison, Ahvaz

Human rights sources reported that the judiciary of the Islamic Republic executed Ayoub Karimi and six other prisoners, whose identities are still unclear, at dawn on Wednesday, December 8, in Qazalhasar prison in Alborz province. Iran Human Rights Organization reported that Ayoub Karimi's execution was carried out "without a last visit." Ayoub Karimi, a Kurdish Sunni prisoner, had been in prison for 14 years, and human rights sources stated that the death sentence issued for him was "based on confessions obtained under torture and without a fair trial." Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, director of Iran Human Rights Organization, described Ayoub Karimi's execution as "like other political prisoners" lacking fair trial and based on torture-induced confessions, deeming this act a "crime" for which "the officials of the Islamic Republic must be held accountable." According to Amiri Moghaddam, "Islamic Republic officials execute political prisoners in the absence of international community attention." The director of this Norway-based human rights organization emphasized that "the international community, especially the states committed to human rights principles that have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, must break their silence regarding the wave of executions and respond appropriately." In October 2008, Abdul Rahim Tina was killed by unknown individuals. Months after this murder, Ayoub Karimi and six other Sunni citizens were arrested in Bahman 1388 (February 2009) in connection with it. According to Arash Sadeghi, Ayoub Karimi was transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Alborz province after 14 months of uncertainty in Evin and Urmia prisons, and in August of this year, during the closure of Rajai Shahr prison, he was taken to Qazalhasar prison in the same province. Arash Sadeghi, a human rights activist in Iran who himself was imprisoned in Rajai Shahr for years, explained that Ayoub Karimi and six other Sunni prisoners accused in this joint case were sentenced to death in a two-minute court session without the right to a lawyer and without sufficient evidence by "Mohammad Mogheiseh," head of Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran in Esfand 1394 (March 2016). He stated that besides Ayoub Karimi, the other six defendants were "Anwar Khezri, Kamran Sheikhe, Farhad Salimi, Qasem Abasteh, Khosrow Basharat, and Davood Abdollahi," whose death sentences were once sent to a parallel branch and re-confirmed by Abolqasem Salavati, and this time Ali Razini in Branch 41 of the Supreme Court confirmed the issued sentences. Qasem Abasteh was another defendant in this case who was executed about three weeks ago, on November 14, on the charge of "corruption on earth" by the judiciary of the Islamic Republic in Qazalhasar prison in Alborz province. Additionally, state-run news agencies in Iran reported that a citizen named Hani Albooshahbazi was executed on Wednesday in Sepidar prison in Ahvaz in connection with the protests of autumn 1398 (2019). According to ILNA, the first branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Abadan had sentenced Hani Albooshahbazi to death on the charge of "moharebeh" (waging war against God), and this sentence was confirmed by Branch 49 of the Supreme Court, and "today" Wednesday, "in the presence of public and revolutionary prosecutors of the province and Shadgan," it was executed in Sepidar prison in Ahvaz. In recent days, the Islamic Republic officials also executed a 17-year-old boy named Hamidreza Azari in connection with a murder case and Milad Zohrevand, a 22-year-old protester, in connection with the protests of Shahrivar 1401 (September 2022). This action was condemned by the UN Human Rights Office in a statement. Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, described the recent executions in Iran as a "war of the government" against "defenseless people" and called on the people of Iran not to leave "the seekers of justice alone," also requesting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take immediate action to stop executions in Iran. A significant number of prisoners, including detained protesters in Iran, remain at risk of execution. The UN Secretary-General had previously announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran executes at a "worryingly rapid" pace, and the number of executions in the first seven months of this year has increased by 30% compared to the same period last year. Pegah Bani Hashemi, a lawyer, previously emphasized in an interview with the Persian section of Voice of America that the death penalty has always been a tool for "repression and instilling fear" throughout the life of the Islamic Republic.