Execution of Four Individuals in Iran; A Political Prisoner: The Government's Death Machine Continues to Kill Relentlessly

Human rights sources reported that the judiciary of the Islamic Republic has executed at least four more prisoners in the prisons of Ahvaz, Isfahan, and Shiraz. According to a report on Thursday, March 9, from the Human Rights Activists' News Agency in Iran, two prisoners named Morteza Jafari and Javad Mohammadi were executed at the Isfahan Central Prison (Dastgerd) early Thursday morning. These two prisoners had previously been detained in connection with drug-related offenses, and the Islamic Revolutionary Court had issued death sentences for them. Additionally, the Iran Human Rights Organization reported on Thursday the execution of a prisoner in Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz. According to this report, the executed individual in Ahvaz was Mir Mohammad Paridar, 62 years old, from Tabriz, and his charges were related to drug offenses. HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, also reported the execution of a prisoner related to a murder charge in Kermanshah Prison. According to this human rights organization, the name of this prisoner is Behrouz Safari, and his execution was carried out on Wednesday, March 8. The issuance and execution of death sentences under the title of 'Qisas-e Nafs' (retribution in kind) in the Islamic Republic of Iran occurs under circumstances where, according to governmental laws, intentional murder is not graded, and 'any type of murder, regardless of severity and motive, leads to a death sentence.' Furthermore, the execution of prisoners related to drug offenses has continuously increased over the past four years by the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic, such that, according to the Iran Human Rights Organization, the number of executions in the past year reached '471 executions,' representing an 84% increase compared to the previous year. In recent days, Reza Mohammad Hosseini, a political prisoner and founding member of the 'No to Execution Tuesdays' campaign, warned from Qezel Hesar Prison that 'the execution machine of the Islamic Republic continues to operate relentlessly, solitary confinement cells have become tools for the psychological and physical torture of prisoners, and systematic killings in the prisons of this government continue.' Additionally, the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic have executed political activists and government-opposing protesters based on charges that human rights organizations describe as 'baseless' and 'fabricated,' and at least 54 of them, including 13 protesters from the year 1401, are at risk of execution. The process of handling cases and issuing sentences in the judiciary of the Islamic Republic has always been criticized by human rights organizations. Javaid Rehman, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, recently wrote in a note that crimes against humanity, including the systematic killing and destruction of opponents and genocide, are among the acts committed by the Islamic Republic, all of which have been documented. Mehdi Hasani, a political prisoner sentenced to death, stated: 'I have no wish other than the freedom of Iran and the happiness of its people.'