The race to identify thousands of jailed Iranian protesters as regime executions continue | 24CA News
The second execution of a protester in as many weeks by Iran’s regime because it intensifies its lethal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations is bringing a renewed sense of urgency to the Iranian diaspora.
Mohsen Shekari was hanged final Thursday morning in Tehran. Then, early Monday, the regime’s judiciary confirmed it had hanged Majid Reza Rahnavard in Mashhad.
Both males have been charged with “waging war against God” and tried in Revolutionary Courts — the regime’s principal channel to stifle political dissent by implementing its Islamic sharia legislation. Human rights organizations have characterised the system as having no due course of and mentioned confessions are routinely produced beneath torture for use as proof in “sham trials.”
On the identical day that Shekari was executed, two younger Kurdish males, Shadman Ahmadi and Shahriar Adeli, died after being tortured by regime authorities in several cities, in response to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. Both had been arrested for participating in protests which have rocked the nation.
Iran hanged a person in public after he had been convicted of killing two members of safety forces, the second execution linked to anti-government protests in lower than every week.
The killings of those males, all of their 20s, has introduced a renewed sense of urgency for the Iranian diaspora, to attempt to forestall extra official executions and unofficial killings of protesters.
Experts say that is the most important political problem the Islamic Republic has skilled since its inception in February 1979.
Protests first erupted in September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody. She had been arrested by the nation’s morality police, allegedly for not sporting her hijab correctly, a part of the regime’s strict Islamic gown code. Her household insists she was overwhelmed to demise.
Identifying ‘unvoiced’ detainees
24CA News spoke with human rights activists and journalists who say that by means of their huge community of contacts inside Iran, they’re being inundated with the names of protesters who’ve been detained in the course of the regime’s crackdown and are seemingly going through the demise penalty.
At least 18,242 protesters have been arrested and 481 killed, together with 68 youngsters and youngsters, nationwide and in anti-regime protests which have gripped the nation for nearly three months, in response to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
“The regime has an extremely horrible track record when it comes to detaining protesters on the streets and specifically, the treatment of those who are unknown,” mentioned journalist Masoud Kazemi, who is predicated in Turkey.
He says casting a highlight on these unvoiced protesters can save their lives.
Kazemi, who was jailed by the regime for nearly a 12 months in Iran’s infamous Evin jail, says that whereas he is apprehensive about artists, athletes and outstanding Iranians who’ve been detained, these who aren’t well-known are handled with extra brutality.
“In darkness, crimes take on a deeper dimension,” he mentioned. “These voiceless protesters are subjected to more physical and mental suffering. They also receive harsher sentences.”
Sharing human tales behind the numbers
For Kurdish human rights activist Soran Mansourian, focusing the general public’s consideration on the regime’s victims has turn into second nature.
He says his sources in Iranian prisons inform him the behaviour of authorities there drastically modifications when detainees have their identities publicized.
“They even walk the prisoners to the interrogation cell with more care,” he mentioned. “Whereas, prisoners who are not spoken about are often beaten with batons as they’re being dragged to be interrogated.”
Mansourian says he tries to inform tales concerning the individuals who have been jailed or killed, utilizing their hobbies and passions to point out that there are actual human beings behind the numbers.
<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/AlaDasti?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#AlaDasti</a>, a 15-year-old Kurdish youngster from <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sanandaj?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Sanandaj</a> was kidnapped by IRGC safety forces within the Azadi sq. of this metropolis on Wed. afternoon, Nov 30. Despite her household’s frequent visits to safety businesses and hospitals of Sanandaj, there isn’t any news about Ala thus far.<a href=”https://twitter.com/UNICEF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@UNICEF</a> <a href=”https://t.co/WbYJVqdwZI”>pic.twitter.com/WbYJVqdwZI</a>
—@Soranmansournia
“They are not just numbers, so I try to create a connection between the audience and the victims where they can see themselves in Iranian people,” he instructed 24CA News from his workplace within the Netherlands.
Mansourian began this work after his youthful brother, Borhan, was shot within the Kurdish majority metropolis of Kermanshah in the course of the November 2019 anti-regime rebellion, by which 1,500 individuals have been killed.
“In 2019, no one was listening to us,” Mansourian mentioned. “No one talked concerning the individuals the regime killed in Bloody November. The media did not pay attention.”
Kazemi, who was in Evin jail at the moment, says he noticed first-hand the accidents and bodily violence the protesters have been subjected to on the streets once they arrived on the jail.
Unknown detainees turn into straightforward targets, activists say
“It appears that for the first time in the Islamic Republic’s history, the international community, at least on the surface, cares about human rights abuses inside Iran,” Kazemi mentioned.
That’s why he says the regime and its authorities are apprehensive about the way in which they’re perceived by the West and may additionally act with extra warning as soon as a prisoner’s title is publicized and put into the worldwide limelight.
Kazemi says the regime pays the next worth when it mistreats outstanding Iranians — and that unknown detainees turn into straightforward targets for abuse, torture and the demise penalty.
Each household that identifies its family members provides one other web page to the thick report of human rights violations by the Islamic Republic.– Masoud Kazemi, journalist
In one latest instance, the dad and mom of outstanding author and dissident Hossein Ronaghi refused to remain silent concerning the torture they mentioned their son skilled in jail. They resorted to sleeping in entrance of Evin jail to push the regime to launch their son. Eventually, authorities allowed Ronaghi to be launched on bail.
“The regime doesn’t bear any responsibility for its mistreatment or killing of those who are not identified. Families need to come forward, even anonymously, to make sure the names of their loved ones are on record,” Kazemi mentioned.
“Each family that identifies its loved ones adds another page to the thick record of human rights violations by the Islamic Republic.”
Families instructed to maintain names of detainees ‘secret’
Kazemi says that like Amini, lots of the protesters should not political activists, setting this rebellion other than earlier actions.
He says that for that reason, lots of the households of detainees haven’t got expertise coping with regime authorities.
Kazemi says they’re instructed by regime brokers that in the event that they keep silent, their family members is perhaps freed. But as the times and weeks go, he says they typically notice they’re being deceived.
“That’s what happened to Mohsen Shekari,” Kazemi mentioned. “With different methods, they threatened and pressured the family to stay quiet. Until the point that they simply executed him without any notice.”
Farangiss Bayat, an in depth buddy of outstanding jailed pupil chief Majid Tavakoli, says extra households have to return ahead.
“We know there are many children and teens who are currently jailed. Some of their families just cannot believe that they have been charged with heavy political crimes. We’re talking about kids who are 14, 15 years old who should be in school right now,” Bayat mentioned from Germany.
Across Twitter, Instagram and different social media platforms, 1000’s of Iranians are utilizing hashtags like #SayTheirNames to amplify the tales of the detained.
Aiding these efforts, a number of German and Swedish parliamentarians have introduced their political sponsorship of some protestors who’ve been sentenced to demise and imprisonment in Iran.
Saroo Moradi is 17. He is being detained by the terrorist regime in Iran. We don’t know the place his jail is. Nor does his household know the place he’s and if he’s properly. That’s why I‘ll be a political sponsor for Saroo. And I’ll do what I can. 1/3<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/iranrevolution2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#iranrevolution2022</a> <a href=”https://t.co/GveJycsaDX”>pic.twitter.com/GveJycsaDX</a>
—@mesarosch
Regime’s historical past of mass executions
Underlying this urgency, is the fear that the Iranian regime might repeat its historical past of secret mass killings.
In 1998, the Islamic Republic unlawfully detained and extrajudicially executed no less than 5,000 Iranian prisoners for his or her political opinions, dumping the our bodies in unmarked graves. Amnesty International has known as it one of probably the most heinous chapters of state violence in Iran’s latest historical past.
Iranian human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan, who has defended many victims of the regime, says he worries that the regime might perform plans to bloodbath prisoners or remove protesters by means of compelled disappearances.
“Many of the recent arrests have been carried out in violation of the rules and regulations, similar to kidnappings. It’s possible that this could lead to protesters being killed without trial,” he mentioned.
Human rights lawyer Gissou Nia says the worldwide group ‘must be doing much more’ to induce the discharge of prisoners at Iran’s infamous Evin jail, the place a lethal hearth broke out late Saturday.
According to Dehghan, many are suspicious a couple of hearth and capturing in Evin jail on Oct. 15. A state news company has mentioned eight prisoners died and 61 have been injured.
But Dehghan says it “could have been part of a plot by the security establishment to cause the ‘accidental’ deaths of the political prisoners.”
Bayat says she shares that concern and worries that prisoners will probably be summarily executed.
“We seriously need to consider the possibility of a repeat of the summer of 1988,” she mentioned.
Despite the lethal crackdown on protesters, Mansourian says the regime will not achieve its efforts to stifle dissent.
“Iranians will never go back to life the way it was on September 15 — the day before Mahsa Jina Amini was killed by the regime.”
