Iran's Judiciary Executes at Least Seven People on Terrorism Charges

The judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced that several prisoners in Kurdistan province were executed on Tuesday, August 2, on terrorism charges. Human rights organizations reported the execution of between seven to ten individuals on that day. The Iran Human Rights Organization in Oslo, Norway, confirmed reports to Radio Farda regarding the execution of Shahram Ahmadi, Khalid Maleki, Mokhtar Rahimi, Bahman Rahimi, Kaveh Vaisi, Arash Sharifi, and Kaveh Sharifi. The charges against these individuals included 'waging war against God, affiliation with armed groups, and armed conflict with law enforcement,' allegations that most of them denied. According to the news agency 'Mizan,' the Iranian judiciary accused most of these individuals of being members of the Islamist group 'Tawhid and Jihad' and claimed that they were involved in bombings, assassinations, and thefts. The judiciary of Kurdistan province also issued a statement on Tuesday, without mentioning the number of executed individuals, stating that some members of a 'Takfiri terrorist group' had been executed. The Kurdistan judiciary accused these individuals of involvement in the 'assassination' of several Sunni clerics, including 'Mamosta Sheikh al-Islam and Mamosta Borhan Ali,' as well as some citizens, including Khalifa Farhadi from Qorveh and Hedayat Hassan Khani from Ilam. The statement accused the executed individuals of killing 'several environmental guards in Sanandaj County' and other offenses such as 'acquiring multiple military weapons and constructing over 50 ready-to-explode bombs, bombing various locations in Sanandaj, committing several armed robberies from jewelry stores in Qorveh, Zanjan, and Hamadan, distributing poisoned food to assassinate some Kurdish citizens, and attacking law enforcement and traffic police centers.' Kaveh Sharifi, one of the individuals accused of assassinating Borhan Ali, the Imam of the Quba Mosque in Sanandaj, had previously denied this accusation in a video released earlier. Some of these prisoners, including Shahram Ahmadi, had previously stated that they were tortured multiple times during interrogation. Shahram Ahmadi was arrested on May 26, 2009, coinciding with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's visit to Sanandaj. The 'International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran' had previously reported that Bahram Ahmadi, Shahram's younger brother, was also arrested in October 2009 and executed in 2012 along with Asghar Rahimi, who had been arrested with Shahram Ahmadi. Some websites reported that last night, the special guard of Rajai Shahr prison had transferred '36 Sunni prisoners sentenced to death to an unknown location.' According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, Taleb Maleki, Voria Ghaderi Fard, Kiyvan Momeni Fard, Barzan Nasrallah Zadeh, Alam Barmashati, Pourya Mohammadi, Ahmad Nasiri, Edris Naemati, Farzad Honarjou, Seyed Shaho Ebrahimi, Mohammad Yavar Rahimi, Bahman Rahimi, Mohammad Gharibi, Farshid Naseri, Mohammad Kiavani Karimi, Amjad Salahi, Omid Piyvand, Ali Mojahadi, Hakemat Sharifi, Omr Abdollahi, Omid Mahmoudi, Abdul Rahman Sangani, and Jamal Seyed Mousavi are among other Sunni prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison whose death sentences have gone to the execution department. In this regard, human rights organizations have called for a halt to the execution of 33 Iranian Sunnis. The human rights campaign reported the execution of six Sunni prisoners on charges of waging war, Sirvan Najavi was executed on charges of waging war, and Behrouz Alkhani and five others were 'executed' in Urmia prison. Ahmad Shahid stated that the number of executions in Iran is higher than in any other country.