Widespread Reactions to the Execution of Four Political Prisoners; Gohar Eshghi: Damn You Khamenei

Following the execution of Pejman Fatehi, Mohammad Farahmrazi, Vafa Azarbar, and Mohsen Mazloom, four Kurdish political prisoners in Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj, despite widespread international protests regarding their situation, human rights organizations and figures have strongly condemned this action by the Islamic Republic. Gohar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger who died in custody due to torture, reacted to the execution of the four Kurdish political prisoners on social media platform X, addressing the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic: "Damn you Khamenei! I used to pray for your death, now I say you won't die until you see your sons hanging!" Joanna Timisi, the wife of Mohsen Mazloom, one of the executed, also wrote on X: "I will neither forgive nor forget today! I have nothing else to say." The human rights organization Hengaw condemned the execution of these four Kurdish political prisoners, stating that in their case, "the minimum standards of fair trial" were not observed even according to the Islamic Republic's own regulations. This human rights group added that the handling of the cases of these four Kurdish activists was "completely opaque" and that their death sentences were issued and confirmed by the Supreme Court while they were deprived of "the right to access a lawyer and the right to visit or even contact their families." Iran Human Rights condemned the execution of these four political prisoners and urged the international community to break its silence regarding the wave of executions in Iran. Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, the director of this organization, stated: "The execution of these four prisoners was based on confessions obtained under torture and without a fair trial, and is considered extrajudicial killing for which Khamenei and the judiciary of the corrupt Islamic Republic must be held accountable." He continued: "The international community must respond practically to the rampant and daily executions by the Islamic Republic, and the slightest reaction from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to these executions was the cancellation of Ms. Nada al-Nashif's trip to Iran and discussions with the Islamic Republic's officials." Prince Reza Pahlavi, referring to these executions and a drone attack on American soldiers, wrote on his personal page on X: "The Islamic Republic has simultaneously declared war against the people of Iran and the world. This regime executed four more prisoners just hours ago in its war against the Iranian people and, in its declaration of war against the world, killed three American soldiers in Jordan through its proxy terrorists and wounded dozens more." He emphasized: "There is only one solution to this problem, which is to help the Iranian people in their struggle for liberation from the Islamic regime and to end the war and conflict." Human rights lawyer Saeed Dehghan also stated on X: "Despite the execution of four more young men under a government murder scenario, the least the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should do immediately is suspend Ms. Nada al-Nashif's trip to Tehran, at least until after the first report of the fact-finding committee is published." He added: "Otherwise, after all the swords the Islamic Republic has drawn against the Iranian people and the UN, such a trip would only assist the Islamic Republic's lobbying with member states of the Human Rights Council to prevent the extension of the UN fact-finding committee's mandate." Nazanin Boniadi, an actress and human rights activist, also reacted to these executions, stating on X that the Islamic Republic is "bloodthirsty" and that UN human rights representatives should not travel to Iran unless they have "unrestricted access to political prisoners" and "executions are suspended." The human rights organization Kurdpa also stated that Nada al-Nashif, the UN representative, should cancel her trip to Iran "in protest against these executions and the repression machine of the Islamic Republic." This human rights organization further noted that the four executed prisoners had faced "complete enforced disappearance" for over 19 months and that less than 24 hours had passed since their "first and last visit with their families" before they were executed. Reports indicate that these four individuals were members of the Kurdistan Komala Party, who were arrested last year in Urmia and accused of "spying for Israel," an accusation that they have strongly denied. Moreover, their lawyer protested the "unfair trial process" regarding these charges. According to relatives of these four Iranian citizens, they had been deprived of visits with their families since their arrest in August 2022. Meanwhile, the families of the four political prisoners visited them in Evin prison on February 8 after "19 months" of being unaware of their situation, and they were told, "This is the last visit." The prisoners were transferred from Evin to Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj on Sunday afternoon, and their death sentences were executed simultaneously with the dawn call to prayer on Monday, February 9. Protests by Iranians residing in Frankfurt and Berlin took place in front of the Islamic Republic's consulate in protest against the death sentences. A gathering of Iranians in Los Angeles protested against the issuance of death sentences for dissenters in Iran.