At least 12 men face execution in Iran, and dozens more could soon be sentenced to death. In Europe, politicians are now sponsoring political prisoners to put pressure on the regime.
A man demonstrates in front of the Portuguese parliament in mid-December against the executions in Iran.
It was a rare ray of hope: Iran’s Supreme Court gave judgment last week an appeal by Saman Yasin. The 24-year-old rapper was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” in early November. The allegation: He tried to kill members of the security forces and set a garbage can on fire. “Where in the world does a lover’s life take over a garbage can?” his mother asked in horror. A court must now reopen the trial against Yasin. Although he remains in custody, he is not immediately threatened with execution.
22-year-old Mohammed Ghobadlou was less fortunate than Yasin: in his case, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence last week. The young man is said to have run over a police officer during the protests in Tehran. Ghobadlou assured the court that he had lost control of his car. At least eleven other protesters have been arrested, according to the organization Iran Human Rights already sentenced to death, The judiciary accuses almost ninety others of crimes that carry the death penalty in Iran.
Most are charged with attacking security forces or destroying public facilities. Since the protests began, over 60 members of the security forces have been killed and hundreds of police stations, bank branches and vehicles destroyed. In many cases, however, the evidence that the accused were directly involved in the violence is tenuous. Often there is also the suspicion that they were forced to confess under torture.
There can be no talk of fair processes
Majid-Reza Rahnavard, for example, appeared in court with a broken arm and had to confess on state television. The court accused the young man of stabbing two members of the Basij militia in Mashhad in mid-November. After just one hearing, the judge sentenced him to death for “enmity against God.” Without prior information from his relatives, the 23-year-old publicly hanged on December 12.
Rahnavard was the second Iranian to be executed following summary proceedings related to the protests. A few days earlier, 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari had been executed. He is said to have injured a member of the Basij militia with a knife. In both cases Amnesty International described the procedures as “unfair show trials” and called on the international community to put pressure on Tehran to stop the executions.
Sponsorships for the political prisoners
In Europe, more and more politicians are actually standing up for the prisoners. In Switzerland, Germany, Austria and other countries, MPs sponsor prisoners who are threatened with execution. In Germany, for example, Ye-One Rhie, member of the SPD in Aachen, supports the rapper Toomaj Salehi, who in his songs and music videos has sharply criticized the regime’s policies and has been in prison since October.
The Austrian Greens MP Sigrid Maurer in turn stands up for the journalist Nilufar Hamedi, which first reported the case of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death in Morality Police custody on September 16 sparked the protests. In Bern, too, a cross-party group was formed in the National Council in mid-December, whose members are committed to sponsoring prisoners in Iran.
Human rights organizations have been providing sponsorships for political prisoners in countries such as China, Russia and Turkey for years. The godparents write protest letters to the ambassadors of the respective country and try to generate public attention for the prisoners. In Austria, Germany and Switzerland alone, almost 400 elected officials are now taking part in the campaign on Iran.
The sponsors are already seeing the first signs of success: Swiss National Councilor Lilian Studer led the dismissal of 15-year-old Amir Hossein Rahimi back to public pressure. The Berlin SPD MP Hakan Demir is also convinced that his sponsorship of the brothers Farzad and Farhad Tahazadeh helped to prevent their imminent execution. There is no concrete evidence for this. For the time being, the only hope is that international attention will help prevent the worst.