Protestors Gather Outside Prison Ahead Of Feared Executions
Demonstrators have gathered outside a jail in Iran overnight ahead of the feared execution of three anti-government protesters.
Demonstrators have gathered outside a jail in Iran overnight ahead of the feared execution of three anti-government protesters.
Videos posted by activists show dozens chanting slogans in front of the Isfahan Central Prison, while gunfire was also heard. The clips also show thick smoke caused by tear gas.
Iranian authorities intend to execute Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashmi, and Saeed Yaqoubi.
The three detainees received the death penalty in connection with an armed attack on November 16on “Isfahan House” neighborhood last year.
The Iranian authorities claim that two members of the security forces and a police officer were killed by protesters.
Campaigners say the three men were tortured into confessions, and there is no reliable evidence against them.
Amnesty International on Saturday spoke of its fears for the fate of the three detainees.
The international human rights organisation said: “Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi are at imminent risk of execution at central Isfahan prison (also known as Dastgerd prison) after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld their unjust convictions and death sentences in early May 2023.”
After a wave of nationwide anti-government protests last year which has still yet to subside, the Iranian regime has embarked on a wave of executions which has seen dozens of prisoners hanged this year.
The regime used overwhelming force with military weapons in its crackdown on the protests, killing more than 500 civilians. Hundreds of other protestors suffered permanent injuries, including the loss of eyes when shotgun pellets were fired at the faces of demonstrators. More than 20,000 people were arrested.
Dr. Mohsen Asadi-Lari, a former high-ranking health ministry official who lost both his children, Mohammad-Hossein and Zeinab, in the downing of the Ukrainian plane on January 8, 2020,told Didbaniran website Sunday that there is evidence the shooting was intentional, but the authorities would not release the evidence.
Iranian authorities who first claimed it was air crash due to a mechanical problem, three days after the incident admitted the plane was shot down with 176 people onboard, but insisted that it was due to human error.
Asadi-Lari said they asked the court to investigate the evidence proving that firing of two anti-air missiles at he plane was intentional and also demanded that the data to be released to them, but the court did not pay attention. He said that the information recorded on the plane’s flight recorder – known as the black box -- would definitively impact the final rulings.
He added that the conversations between the plane and the control tower can shed light on the circumstances of the missile attack. “We are sure that he deliberately triggered the attack and we have raised this in the court in different ways," he said about the missile operator.
Asadi-Lari added that the prime suspect in the case, identified as a Major Mehdi Khosravi, will be released in the near future because according to Iran’s laws he has spent about a third of his sentence. More than three years have passed since the incident and Khosravi was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He claimed that Khosravi has been kept in solitary confinement since January 2020, saying, “Anyone familiar with Iran’s prison and judicial matters knows what it means to be in solitary confinement.” His remarks implicitly pointed to the fact that the regime does not want him to talk about the details of the incident.
“Compare the case of this plane with the case of the executed protestors, who were hanged for blocking a street or setting fire to a trash bin,” he said, adding that 176 innocent people were killed, and the culprit can go free after 40 months in prison.
Asadi-Lari clarified that the family do not seek execution for the officer because he was a service member and was doing his job, but they want the truth to be revealed.
Asadi-Lari and his wife Dr. Zahra Majd earlier insisted that the ten low-ranking military personnel on trial are not the real culprits. They claimed Khosravi was an expert in the Tor-M1 surface-to-air system that shot down the plane and that it was unbelievable that he had made the decision based by error.
Ukraine's flight PS752 was shot down on January 8, 2020, as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Only hours earlier, the IRGC had fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation for the killing of the IRGC Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani by a targeted US drone strike just five days earlier.
Despite expecting retaliation from the US, the IRGC which is responsible for air defense of the capital did not close the civilian airspace in the early morning hours of January 8.
Asadi-Lari and his wife, both professors at Iran Medical Sciences University, say the whole family, including their two children who were students in Canadian universities, were devastated by Soleimani's killing and were very worried about a US retaliation for Iran's missile attack while the family was on their way to the airport. Before the flight took off, their son Mohammad-Hossein had been praying for Soleimani who was buried the day before.
Unlike parents and family members of many other victims of the tragedy, the Asadi-Lari family are not members of the Canada-based association representing victims' families. The association does not recognize the eligibility of the Islamic Republic's Judiciary for investigating the incident and has repeatedly called for top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, to be held responsible.