Eight people arrested during Iran’s nationwide protests in the southern city of Izeh, are indicted for "waging war against God" and "corruption on earth" that can lead to death sentences.
US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported Sunday that the case of these people was referred to the fourth branch of Ahvaz Revolutionary Court and all of them are detained in Shiban prison of Ahvaz in the south.
The citizens were arrested in November 2022 by the intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Earlier this month, Iran sentenced another protester to death in Izeh for the killing of a nine-year-old during unrest in November, although the victim’s family insists the killers were security forces and the man is innocent.
Judiciary announced that Abbas (Mojahed) Kourkouri was sentenced to death for the killing of Kian Pirfalak in Izeh in southwestern Iran on November 15.
Kian and his family were targeted by plainclothesmen during a night of protests in Izeh while they were in their car. Kian’s father was also paralyzed as a result of serious injuries he sustained during the attack.
Over 500 protesters and bystanders were killed by security forces during the protests across Iran. The regime executed four young men for their alleged role in the killings of government agents in December and January after hasty trials.
Dr. Hamid Qarahassanlou (Ghara-Hasanlou), a fifty-four-year-old radiologist, and his wife Farzaneh were arrested in November in Karaj during protests in which a member of the Basij militia, Ruhollah Ajamian (27), was beaten to death by angry protesters but both have denied any involvement in the incident.
Qarahassanlou was initially sentenced to death and his wife to twenty-five years prison, but their sentences were later reduced due to a strong backlash on social media and lack of evidence of their involvement in a second trial.
Yazd and Mashhad, where Hamid and Farzaneh Qarahassanlou will serve their sentences respectively, are nearly 1,000, and 670 kilometers away from their hometown of Karaj.
A statement by the family released on social media Friday, after the announcement of the new sentences Tuesday, said even the footage of the incident made by security agents proves that the couple were not involved in the killing and were only present on the scene on the way home from a protest in Karaj, near Tehran, on November 3.
“He now has to be exiled [to a prison] in Yazd for fifteen years for not having saved the life of that Basiji in the fracas [of the moment] as a humane doctor,” the statement said while describing the very violent arrest of the couple which they say has hugely affected the couple’s teenage daughter.
The large protest rally that turned very violent after security forces attacked protesters was held to commemorate a young girl, Hadis Najafi, who was shot to death by security forces forty days earlier.
“The crime [for which they were punished] was and is nothing other than participating in Hadis Najafi’s 40th day memorial,” the statement said.
Two young protesters, Mohammad Mehdi Karami (22) and Mohammad Hossein (39), were executed over Ajamian’s death in January after a hasty trial which human rights activists have called a travesty of justice.
All of the accused, including Qarahassanlou, were reportedly severely tortured to obtain “confessions” and the hardliner Judiciary assigned lawyers despite several prominent lawyers volunteering to defend them.
The lawyers assigned by the court did very little to defend the accused according to family members.
The convictions were not based on a criminal charge related to the murder per se, but they were charged with ‘moharebeh’, meaning “war against God”, a vague religious concept. The Islamic Republic applies the charge to people who might get into a confrontation with security forces during protests.
The first two hangings triggered strong international condemnations and hundreds of lawmakers in Europe and Australia began sponsoring Iranian detainees in danger of execution to generate publicity and impact their fate.
Twelve other protestors have been jailed for up to 15 years for the Basij agent’s death.
The couple were badly beaten during the arrest and later in detention. Qarahassanlou underwent surgery three times for several broken ribs and damaged lung and the family say he has partially lost his eyesight as a result of the beatings.
The couple who belong to the persecuted Sufi Gonabadi Order were known for active involvement in charitable efforts including building schools for underprivileged children.
In a post entitled “Report to the People” Friday, Canada-based activist Esmaeilion announced that he has left the alliance. The council consisted of the exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, Nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi , US-based author, journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi and Secretary General of the Kurdish Komala Party Abdullah Mohtadi and Esmaeilion.
Boniadi recently deactivated her social media accounts without any explanation and appears to have withdrawn from the alliance too. Alinejad, Mohtadi, and Ebadi have so far not commented on Esmaeilion’s resignation.
The alliance announced its existence in a February event at Georgetown University and issued its charter, the Mahsa Charter, in early March and its members said they had agreed on “minimal positions” that could create the most consensus among the opposition.
Esmaeilion said he joined the opposition in exile council hoping to help create a platform for dialogue and cooperation among various opposition factions but the lack of democracy and transparency in the council and the “domination” of one member over the others disillusioned him.
He claimed that he had tried to keep away from “conflicts, pressures and illogical demands” but was impeded by “pressure groups from the outside” who kept trying to impose their own views on the coalition by “undemocratic methods".
Supporters of Esmaeilion, Alinejad, and Mohtadi have long been accusing the supporters of the exiled Prince of harassment on social media and efforts to defame them. Prince Reza Pahlavi has on some occasions advised his supporters to be more tolerant of others but the disputes and attacks on social media only got worse. They often accuse Prince Reza Pahlavi’s supporters of trying to present the him as the only legitimate leader of the opposition.
Supporters of the Prince who call themselves ‘constitutionalists’ are staunchly against establishing a republic of any form in Iran, particularly federalism, seek the revival of a constitutional monarchy and the Iranian Constitution of 1906. They allege that others, Esmaeilion and Alinejad in particular, have views that will lead to the loss of Iran's national integrity.
Constitutionalists have been particularly angry recently because they believe that Esmaeilion and possibly Alinejad have prevented the Prince from including some opposition figures close to him in the coalition– particularly London-based journalist Amir Taheri, the US-based Amir-Hossein Etemadi, a member of the Frashgard group, and Germany-based musician and activist Shahin Najafi.
"Imposing opinions is not democratic, and the consensus of a group’s members, not just one member, is a precondition of a democratic movement," Esmaeilion wrote without naming Prince Reza Pahlavi directly while further suggesting that there have been efforts to “eliminate” others and impose certain views on others.
He also opined that the opposition abroad should only help to empower the people of Iran, their networks and organizations and that he would personally continue helping young pro-democracy Iranians abroad to organize and work on “unrestricted internet and several other projects” with them.
His critics respond that the six-member council was self-appointed, and no one got elected to block others from joining.
Some social media users have also suggested that the reason for Esmaeilion’s departure from the alliance at this time could have been his opposition to the Prince’s recent visit to Israel.
“Timelines are filled with Esmaeilion’s worthless tweet exactly when articles and tweets must focus on the important and taboo-breaking Israel visit of the Iranian monarch, Prince Reza Pahlavi, and the impact of this visit today and after the reclamation of Iran [from the Islamic Republic]. Isn’t it interesting?” one of the Prince’s supporters tweeted.
The audio recording leaked to media, which is full of bizarre remarks, seems to be from a session in which the unnamed speaker is talking about the nationwide protests that have not died down since September.
Echoing conspiratorial propaganda by the regime’s authorities, the speaker blamed other countries for the protests, saying that a select group of protesters had been trained in the US bases in the region.
It appears that the orator is addressing a group of regime loyalists and his strange remarks give the impression of an almost desperate attempt to convince regime insiders that they are besieged by conspirators – an at one point in the speech – even by mythological beings.
He presented no evidence and did not explain how large protests formed is, as he says, only a handful were trained to foment unrest.
“They selected special people from among them and took them to private [social media] channels and taught them urban warfare, for example making grenades,” he claimed, adding that "Among these special people, they chose even more special people and took them to the American bases in Jordan, Turkey and Erbil and trained them."
The intelligence ministry’s official made more bizarre claims, saying that the "training sessions" of these people in the American bases were "mixed-gender and they were provided with sexual attractions, drugs and alcohol."
He added that celebrities and influencers were taken to US bases in Turkey, where they signed contracts in dollars and euros to fight against the regime.
He went on to say that during the protests out of every 200 people, five people were trained by the US. “In these five-member units, one person was in charge of chanting slogans, one person gathered people, one person killed security forces, one person set fire to a place, and one person broadcast the events live on Iran International and BBC,” he added. Following the escalation of protests across Iran, internet access was shut or slowed down regularly and no live broadcasts happened from inside the country.
He also claimed that in the Iranian province of Kordestan "17,000 men and women” trained by Kurdish nationalist groups planned to attack five cities in the province. The Al-Ahwazi Arab Popular Democratic Front (APDF) also planned to launch an armed rebellion and attack the city of Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan in southwest Iran, the official told his audience.
He also claimed that members of Jaish ul-Adl -- a Salafi Islamist militant organization that operates mainly in southeastern Iran – also sought independence in Sistan-Baluchestan province. He said that similar attacks were also planned by Iran’s Pan-Turkists. "The enemies worked for years on Pan-Kurdism, Pan-Turkism, Pan-Arabism and Pan-Baluchism,” he said.
Amid all these, the official did not explain how Iran’s multiple intelligence organizations missed all the preparations by alleged enemies and why there was no evidence of protesters taking up arms.
Going to the realm of fiction, he said that “jinns” or malevolent mythological creatures also played a role in the current wave of protests. Jinn – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic culture and beliefs. “These jinns enter the bodies of unfaithful people and possess them,” he said, adding that during meetings with Islamic experts they found out that reciting the Quran and Islamic call to public prayer can scare them away. “Satellite dishes must be removed from homes because households that have satellites are frequented by evil jinns,” the official said.