DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Wednesday executed a person convicted within the deadly shootings of seven folks throughout a 2022 protest over the loss of life of Mahsa Amini, although human rights activists say he was tortured into confessing to killings doubtless carried out by safety providers.
The hanging of Abbas Kourkouri, often known as Mojahed Kourkouri, marks the primary execution in almost a 12 months for somebody arrested within the protests surrounding the loss of life of Amini, who had been detained by police allegedly over not carrying her hijab, or scarf, to their liking. Her loss of life sparked months of demonstrations. Even as we speak, some girls refuse to put on their headscarves in public, overtly defying a hijab legislation instituted by the nation’s theocracy.
It is unclear why authorities selected now to execute Kourkouri, 42, although tensions have been rising regionally over Iran’s quickly advancing nuclear program, and the results of talks with america stays unsure. Iran is among the world’s high executioners and has been cracking down in different methods on society within the time for the reason that Amini demonstrations.
Kourkouri “was sentenced to loss of life with out a honest trial and with out entry to a lawyer of his alternative,” mentioned Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, which tallied a median of 1 execution within the Islamic Republic each six hours over the past eight months.
Iran’s state-run IRNA information company reported on the time that on Nov. 16, 2022 two gunmen on bikes shot at protesters and safety personnel gathered on the central market within the southwestern metropolis of Izeh within the nation’s restive, oil-rich Khuzestan province.
The assault killed seven folks, together with a 9-year-old boy, and wounded three cops and two members of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The loss of life of the boy, named Kian Pirfalak, drew anger from Iranians, significantly after his household reportedly mentioned it was safety forces — not different gunmen — who opened fireplace.
Kourkouri was accused of being one of many gunmen.
He was charged with a spate of offenses, together with “moharebeh” – an Islamic time period that means waging a battle in opposition to God. Authorities arrested him in December 2022 after reportedly taking pictures him within the leg. Activists say he was denied medical therapy past the bullet’s elimination.
State media described Kourkouri as a drug vendor and “instigator” with a historical past of extremist beliefs. However rights advocates say he isn’t the violent individual authorities have made him out to be and was himself an harmless protester.
“He was arrested in the course of the ‘Girl, Life, Freedom’ protests, and the Islamic Republic authorities tried in charge him” for the assault, Amiry-Moghaddam mentioned. He added that the slain boy’s mother and father and uncle believed Iranian safety forces have been accountable.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists Information Company, which additionally displays Iran, equally dismissed the Iranian authorities’s claims.
“Whereas authorities proceed to explain the occasions of Nov. 16 in Izeh as a ‘terrorist assault,’ eyewitnesses and the households of victims have offered accounts that contradict the federal government’s narrative,” it mentioned Wednesday. The group quoted Kian’s mom as saying, “On our manner dwelling, officers opened fireplace on our automotive.”
State media earlier broadcast movies of Kourkouri taking blame for the assault. However Amnesty Worldwide has mentioned that authorities subjected him to solitary confinement and coerced his confessions, and that he wasn’t on the scene on the time of the killings.
One videotaped confession that had been aired on state TV confirmed Kourkouri in mattress along with his arm visibly bandaged and bloody, the rights group mentioned. The footage resembled that of many different suspected coerced confessions broadcast in Iran.
Kourkouri’s loss of life brings the tally of executions associated to violence on the Amini protests as much as 11. The final such execution got here 10 months in the past, after Reza Resaei, 34, was sentenced to loss of life over the killing of a safety officer. Rights teams additionally mentioned his confession was compelled.
The United Nations-established Unbiased Worldwide Truth-Discovering Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran mentioned Wednesday that proceedings in opposition to Kourkouri had been “marred by gross human rights violations.” It referred to as on Iran to halt executions, together with these in opposition to girls’s rights activists.
On the streets of Iranian cities, it’s turning into more and more frequent to see a girl cross by with out a necessary hijab, because the third anniversary of the loss of life of Mahsa Amini and the mass protests it sparked approaches this fall.
The federal government has focused personal companies the place girls are seen with out their headscarves. Surveillance cameras seek for girls uncovered in automobiles to superb and impound their automobiles, and authorities have gone so far as to make use of aerial drones to watch girls.
The nation’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to curb the morality police’s harassment of ladies. However the nation’s final authority rests with its 86-year-old Supreme Chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei has up to now mentioned “unveiling is each religiously forbidden and politically forbidden.”
