Leaked Audio: 80 Iran Protesters Face Execution On Trumped-Up Charges

According to the official news website of the judiciary, Mizan Online, the four Iranians, identified as Hossein Ordoukhanzadeh, Shaahin Imani Mahmoudabad, Milad Ashrafi Atbatan, and Manouchehr Shahbandi Bojandi, were hanged early on Sunday. Ordoukhanzadeh – the alleged main link with Mossad – had been imprisoned in Greece between 2014 and 2017 for attempting to traffic humans from Turkey to Greece. 

“This morning, the sentences of four main members of the gang of mobsters related to the Zionist intelligence service were executed,” read a statement by the judiciary, adding that their sentences were carried out four days after the Islamic Republic’s supreme court upheld the penalty of capital punishment for “their intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime [Israel] and kidnapping.” There was no recourse to appeal after the decision on Wednesday, November 30, it added.

According to the Wednesday ruling, three other defendants were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison for crimes against the Islamic Republic’s security, complicity in kidnapping and possession of weapons. 

All the seven individuals – whom the judiciary called “thugs” with previous criminal records -- allegedly received payment in cryptocurrencies and were guided by Israeli intelligence to buy weapons and equipment, do the abductions and interrogating them, engage in destroying public and private property, theft, kidnappings, and obtaining fake confessions. They allegedly received their instructions from a Mossad operative based in Sweden. They also received training on how to destroy evidence, evade security cameras, and swap vehicles, the judiciary claimed. 

Iran’s state media claimed that the group was behind the kidnapping and interrogation of Iranian "jihadist" Yadollah Khedmati.

In July, Iran International obtained video footage of an interrogation in which a man introducing himself as Yadollah Khedmati, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Logistics, says he regrets his involvement in shipping weapons to Iran’s proxy groups in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen and urges other IRGC officials to avoid engagement in such activities.

According to a source, Khedmati served as the deputy of Brigadier General Ali Asghar Nowrouzi, the IRGC’s Logistics commander who is known as a close associate of the former commander of the IRGC’s Qods Force, Ghasem Soleimani. Soleimani was assassinated by the US in Baghdad in January 2020.

Khedmati also tells his interrogators about Nowrouzi’s connections with Fars Air Qeshm cargo airline. The airline has been accused of transporting weapons for Hezbollah during the civil war in Syria.

In another case, Israeli media had published a short video in which a man identified as Mansour Rasouli said he was sent to Turkey by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to establish an operational network, assassinate an Israeli diplomat in Istanbul, a Germany-based US general, and a journalist in France.

The audio recording surfaced hours after Iran International's report of the alleged Iranian triple assassination plot. Israeli television channels including Channel 12 which broadcast the recording, without providing a source according to The Times of Israel, claimed it was made by Mossad operatives posing as Iranian secret service at Rasouli's home in Tehran but did not hold him after the interrogation. In another video aired by Iran International in May, Rasouli said he was abducted and coerced to make false confessions.

Factual corrections were made in this report on June 15, 2023

The files hacked by the Black Reward group reveal that as many as one percent of all those arrested during the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini were military personnel.

Earlier, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, President Ebrahim Raisi and Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei had announced at a joint meeting that such “baseless” reports are not “valid”.

However, as reports of the defections among armed forces continued, Hossein Rahimi, the police chief of Tehran, called for more financial support for security agents.

Reports say the regime forces have also arrested a former IRGC commander in an attack on his home, confiscating his personal belongings.

General Mohammad Bagher Bakhtiar had earlier published an audio file, accusing the Islamic Republic of hiding the reason behind Mahsa Amini’s death, who was killed in police custody in mid-September, stating that reliable sources have found out Mahsa Amini succumbed to the “injuries to her skull.”

The government never took responsibility for her death, claiming that she passed away due to a pre-existing illness.

He also stated the authorities of the Islamic Republic are “ambitious” saying if “common sense” had been exercised by accepting responsibility and apologizing for the incident, perhaps there would have been "fewer consequences.

Regarding the slogans by protesters against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Bakhtiar emphasized that “the people are chanting slogans directly against the Leader. People do not want you. Understand this!”

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri made the comments in a meeting Saturday, stressing however, that the judiciary continues to monitor behavioral conduct among the people, a hint that hijab rules are not scrapped and only special patrols in streets are disbanded.

It is not clear if Montazeri's remark is an official decision endorsed by other top officials or a publicity stunt to show flexibility on the part of the authorities. So far, there is no word from law enforcement that controls the hijab police, or the presidential administration.

Earlier in the week Montazeri had mentioned that the Parliament and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution would announce their opinion on the issue of forced hijab within two weeks, signaling that the mandatory hijab rule might be modified or revoked.

The recent protest movement in Iran was triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, when she was arrested by the ‘morality police’ for ‘improper attire.’ During the nationwide protests, women removed the mandatory hijab and set their headscarves on fire in the streets as a sign of protest.

Western governments, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, added the hijab law enforcement unit to their list of sanctioned entities.

Many women in Iran are now appearing in public without the mandatory veil and regular police is not interfering in a sign that authorities are either unwilling to risk further confrontation with the public or find it impossible to deal with so many women undermining the rule at the same time. Police forces have also become over-stretched during protests and many have resigned or have applied for early retirement.

The ‘morality police’ was officially launched in the summer of 2006 during the presidency of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative. Ahmadreza Radan, the former police chief of Tehran during this time described the mission of ‘morality police’ as “fighting against improper hijab.”

The apparent end of the controversial and violent institution has been announced by a top Iranian judiciary official in a situation that people on social media say the decision would not persuade them to give up protests since they have fundamental demands, including an end to the Islamic Republic.

They say the mandatory hijab itself is an apartheid policy against women which is still in force. It also symbolizes broader demands for fundamental political and economic reforms like a free and independent judiciary, freedom of speech, free elections, etc.

The Islamic Republic is far from accepting such demands because that would mean its demise if officials became accountable through democratic institutions.

While people on social media generally call for the ouster of the regime, it seems the end of morality police is an insufficient concession to protesters.

Iranian women’s fight against state-imposed hijab started as early as in 1979 shortly after the Islamic Republic was established. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first leader of the clerical regime announced immediately announced that women would be allowed in their workplaces only if they observe compulsory hijab.

Soon after his comments, thousands of Iranian women poured into the streets to protest but they were brutally suppressed by pro-regime forces that would later form the Revolutionary Guard, Basij paramilitary and the ‘morality police.’

This led to years of socioeconomic marginalization of women who rejected the imposition of compulsory hijab and a host of other discriminatory statues and practices. Many well-educated Iranian women, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, lost their jobs and a large number emigrated.

Students at Tehran Azad University of Research and Sciences held a sit-in publicizing that they will hold protests on December 7 to mark the annual Student Day in Iran.

Students at Kharazmi University also protested widespread campus food poisonings, chanting “They poison students, and now justify it.”

Within the past ten days, hundreds of students at universities of Esfahan, Arak, Allameh, and Karaj Kharazmi were poisoned after eating dining in cafeterias. Student groups have issued announcements saying that the food poisoning was intentional by authorities to keep them away from protests.

In Tehran University, students at the Faculty of Social Sciences also held a sit-in to protest a recent security beef-up and the restrictions on students.

Many students at Kordistan University also staged a sit-in to protest the arrest of their professors, Behrouz Chamanara.

Meanwhile, Iranians abroad organized gatherings to declare their opposition to the Islamic Republic. In Frankfurt and Melbourne, the “Run for Freedom” program was held with athletes running long distances, and in Brussels artists reflected the voice of Iranian people with dance and music.

Iranians living in Sweden gathered in the city of Gothenburg like in previous weeks and chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic.

Similar demonstrations were held in the city of Auckland in New Zealand, Istanbul, Rome, and Vienna.

Meanwhile, Iranian human rights activist Nargess Mohammadi, who is imprisoned in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison urged Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran to probe into sexual assaults on female detainees.

In a statement published on her Instagram Saturday, she said “Assaulting women during incarceration and in custody centers is part of the regime’s suppression plan against female protesters and fighters.”

Mohammadi added that there had been “numerous and horrifying” reports of female prisoners being assaulted and raped in Evin and Zanjan prisons between 2010 and 2020.

The Iranian activist also went on to say that she was “assaulted and insulted by jail and security authorities in Evin Prison” in 2010. She filed a lawsuit, but instead of justice being served, she received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence as well as 80 lashes.

In another part of her letter, she called on Rehman, “to investigate, hold accountable and condemn the government, to prevent the continuation of this inhumane method to suppress protesting women and to take serious and quick action in this regard.”

There have been widespread reports of rapes and other sexual abuse being committed on women detainees, which is seen as part of the brutal crackdown on women protesters demanding freedoms.

In November, a network of activists with a mandate to follow up on the condition of detained protesters in Iran reported dire human rights violations such as torture and sexual abuse.

The “Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees” reported torture, sexual harassment, threats of rape, not having access to medical services, and the detention of some inmates in secret locations.

The report said a female prisoner has been openly threatened with rape. The interrogators told her and other detainees “If you are raped here, you cannot protest! If you want to get naked, and you must pay for it!” The government and its agents accuse anti-hijab protesters of improper attire and nudity.

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said while explaining what he called "the hybrid war in recent riots, "December 1 that Iranians use various Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to circumvent government Internet filters.

"We shut down one VPN today and immediately it is replaced by another one supplied by foreign countries." He added that "The only solution is shutting down the Internet completely, which is neither possible, nor the officials want this to happen."

Although he blamed foreign countries for providing VPNs, it is local businesses, most controlled by people close to the regime who sell the software.

Montazeri said he has been criticized by Internet users for insisting on blocking websites and application, but previous government disobeyed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's order about strictly controlling the Internet.

He made the comment mindless of the fact that one of President Ebrahim Raisi’s main promises in the 2021 presidential election was giving access to high-speed Internet to all Iranians in a bid to boost business.

Montazeri said that “enemies” have tried all sorts of campaigns against the Islamic Republic during the past four decades. Today, he said, they have resorted to a hybrid war.

The term has become a buzz word of Iranian officials and military commanders who have been repeating Khamenei's words probably without fully understanding it. Montazeri added that "the main perpetrators of this hybrid war are Israelis, Americans, Germans and the French."

He explained that this hybrid war consists of political cyber campaigns, fake news and diplomatic actions, adding that Khamenei had particularly warned about the cultural aspect of this war many years ago, but officials did not take his warning seriously.

A report published by proreform Fararu news website indicated that up to 10 million Iranians' livelihood may be adversely affected by government’s Internet access denials and its ban on social media platfoems. This has prevented Internet-based businesses from marketing and selling their products and services. Economists told Fararu that the limitation will have alarming repercussions for Iran's economy while the country is suffering from high inflation and recession.

Fararu added that only during the past two months while the protests were raging on, Iranians lost up to 300 thousand jobs as a result of the restrictions imposed on the Internet. Some 53 percent of Internet-related businesses have been losing some 500 million rials ($1,500) per day each. According to the trade union of computer-based businesses, Instagram has a penetration rate of 80 percent in the market with some 3.5 million jobs depending on the platform.

Economist Ehsan Soltani warned that "the officials do not want to listen to this problem. They do not realize that filtering and slowing down the Internet will add to economic problems. They keep adding to the country's problems by insisting on their mistakes."

The government has been severely restricting Internet access in general and access to popular social media platforms, such as Instagram, that play a key role in e-commerce. The government is extremely nervous that people use the Internet and social media to share news and images about protests, possibly motivating a larger segment of the population to join demonstrations.

Earlier this year, several US lawmakers and former US official Victoria Coates, who served as senior advisor to the energy secretary in the Trump administration, called on entrepreneur Elon Musk to activate Starlink satellite access for Iranians. Reports on social media during September and October said that private entities have smuggled Starlink reception equipment into Iran. But there is still no substantial indication how widespread Starlink’s use is.