December 10, 2022
At least two dozen Iranian protesters face possible execution as a response by authorities to their participation in protests critical of the government, according to a report published Saturday by local daily ‘Etemad’.
The newspaper published a list drawn up by the Iranian authorities accusing 25 demonstrators of «waging war against God», a charge that, according to Iranian law, is punishable by death.
The list of 25 defendants includes rapper Mohsen Shekari, who was already executed on Thursday on charges of assaulting a security guard with a gun, inciting terror and blocking a road.
Rap musician Mohsen Shekari, who was also on the list, was executed Thursday on charges of assaulting a security guard with a weapon, as well as inciting terror and blocking a road.
Iranian judicial authorities have already announced that new executions will be carried out, while much of the international community and the most critical domestic sectors, such as ‘Etimad’ itself, call on the authorities to review the convictions and avoid new executions.
Shekari’s death has already drawn strong condemnation at home and abroad, although Iranian political leaders, including President Ebrahim Raisi, described the execution as a legitimate response to unrest across the country.
Protesters have threatened to act in response and have spread the slogan ‘Await our revenge’ on social media. Meanwhile, internationally, Iranians abroad have also announced new anti-government protests over the weekend.
Iran has been the scene of protests since mid-September, when Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing the veil properly and violating Islamic dress codes.
Since then, as the demonstrations have continued, the authorities have violently repressed them, earning new sanctions from the international community for human rights issues.
However, from Tehran they do not consider to be giving arguments for the mobilizations and have accused the «enemies» of Iran and «mercenaries» of being behind the massive protests. The authorities consider that the majority of Iranians continue to support the Islamic system.
Iran's Raisi promises to pursue crackdown on protesters; cleric critical of execution
December 10, 2022
DUBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A prominent dissenting Sunni cleric on Friday said the death sentence of an Iranian protester involved in anti-government unrest violated sharia law, as President Ebrahim Raisi promised to press on with a crackdown a day after the man's execution.
On Thursday, Iran hanged Mohsen Shekari, who had been convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran, the first such execution after thousands of arrests over the unrest, drawing a chorus of Western condemnation.
Nationwide protests that erupted after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 pose one of the biggest challenges to theocratic rule in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Molavi Abdolhamid, an outspoken Sunni cleric in the Shi'ite-ruled Islamic Republic, criticised the death sentence, according to his website.
"When someone has not killed but only blocked a road and stabbed and injured a Basij (militia) member with a knife, he cannot be put to death under sharia," Molavi Abdolhamid said.
"Listen to these protests and negotiate with the people of Iran. Beating, killing and executing this nation is not right. This protest will not be quelled by killing people," he said, addressing authorities.
State media published a video of what it said was Shekari's confession where he appears with a bruise on his right cheek. He admitted to striking a member of the Basij militia with a knife and to blocking a road with his motorbike alongside one of his friends.
Human rights groups said Shekari was tortured and forced to confess.
A video widely shared on social media showed protesters shouting from north Tehran rooftops late into the night "We are all Mohsen" and "Khamenei is a murderer" - in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Another video showed people lighting candles in front of Shekari's home late on Friday. Reuters could not immediately verify the videos.
In Geneva, U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Turk called the execution “very troubling and clearly designed to send a chilling effect to the rest of the protesters." He called on the Iranian authorities to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty.
In a Friday prayers sermon, however, hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami thanked "the judiciary for sending the first rioter to the gallows.”
Iran's foreign ministry rejected Western criticism of rights abuses during the crackdown as meddling in Iran's internal affairs and in violation of international law.
"Under the slogan of supporting human rights or women's rights, (Western countries) incite and promote violence against the integrity of the nation and Iran's national security," ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement carried by state media.
'SHAM TRIALS'
Amnesty International has said Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called "sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran".
Iran has blamed the unrest on its foreign foes including the United States, although protesters have come from all walks of life in the Islamic Republic and have drawn public support from prominent cultural and sports figures, as well as a sister and a niece of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Germany on Friday condemned the execution, called on Tehran to immediately end its violence against protesters and confirmed it had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin.
Britain announced sanctions on Friday against 30 people worldwide, including officials from Russia, Iran and Myanmar it deems responsible for human rights abuses or corruption.
Molavi Abdolhamid made his critical comments from Zahedan, the capital of restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, home to Iran's Baluch minority who have faced discrimination and repression for decades, according to human rights groups.
Protests were held in Zahedan and other cities of the province on Friday, according to online videos.
The top security body in the province said on Friday Molavi Abdolvahed Rigi, a Friday prayers imam in the town of Khash, was kidnapped and killed in an "act of terror", state television reported, without elaborating.
At least five Jews arrested by Iran during protests against Islamic Republic
December 10, 2022
"The Jewish community in Iran is under pressure," an Iranian dissident said. "Like other Iranians, also Jewish Iranians are oppressed."
At least five Iranian Jews were arrested by Iranian security forces over the last few weeks during nationwide protests engulfing the theocratic Islamic state, The Jerusalem Post can reveal.
Karmel Melamed, an Iranian-American journalist who has deep sourcing within the Persian Jewish community in Iran and in the Iranian Diaspora, told the Post that "my contact source who is in contact with the Jewish leadership in Iran has confirmed that indeed five Jews have been arrested in Iran recently, but one was released after a one-week detention.”
He added that "the four remaining Jews are still in jail, awaiting adjudication of their cases by the Iranian authorities along with many other young people who have been arrested for their involvement in the protests. Of the four Jews are in custody, two of them are university students from Tehran who were rounded up with the scores of other student protestors.”
Some detained Jews are Tehran university students
Melamed, who has written extensively about Iranian Jews, said “one of the Jews in custody is a Jewish student from Shiraz who was arrested for flying a small drone in his city. The flying of any drones by civilians is strictly prohibited by the Iranian regime.”
According to Melamed, “right now, the Jewish leadership in Tehran is working closely with the regime's authorities to help secure their release.”
Armita Abbasi, 20, who sports a Star of David necklace in photographs of herself although she is not Jewish, was arrested and raped by the Islamic Republic’s security forces in October. CNN reported that, in contrast to most Iranian dissidents within Iran, she “did not anonymize her anti-regime posts” on social media.
The news network, which did not mention her wearing a Star of David, reported that leaked accounts “suggested that Iranian security forces tortured and sexually assaulted Abbasi.”
Sheina Vojoudi, a spokesperson for the Senate of the National Iranian Congress, told the Post: “Ask the Islamic Republic where Armita Abbasi is – the girl with the Magen David? She was arrested, raped and tortured. Where is she now?"
An Iranian dissident who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran due to repression, Vojoudi added that the "Jewish community in Iran is under pressure. Like other Iranians, also Jewish Iranians are oppressed.
"The Jewish people must admit to whatever the Islamic Republic tells them, to show the world that the Jewish people in Iran have religious freedom – but it’s a lie," she said. "They can easily be accused of espionage and cooperation with Israel. They can be sentenced to dreadful penalties and all their properties can be confiscated.”
Melamed said that "the statements recently released by the Jewish community and Christian communities leaders in support of the Islamic regime in Iran during the recent protests should be given zero credibility because they were likely made under duress from the Iranian regime's Intelligence Ministry.
"Sadly the regime's thugs always direct the Jewish and other religious minority leaders in Iran to make favorable statements about the regime in the media or often parade them in front of Western news television programs to praise the regime as a part of a propaganda effort to make the regime look good," he lamented. "These Jewish and Christian leaders in Iran are forced to comply with the regime's demands otherwise they know their communities will face possible dire consequences for their failure to comply.
"The Jewish protestors who were arrested in Iran recently are most likely younger people and I'm not at all surprised that they've joined the protests with other young Iranians in the streets there," Melamed said. "While their older Jewish parents and grandparents may have witnessed or experienced the brutality of the Iranian regime against Iran's Jews over the last 43 years and have fear of the regime, the younger generation of Iran's Jews has not – and are following other young people who also have no fear of the regime and are only demanding freedom for themselves.”
According to Melamed, ”the young protestors in Iran all see themselves as Iranian collectively and do not differentiate among one another based on religion as the Iranian regime does. I personally believe that since the Islamic regime has been trying to force state-sponsored religion down the throats of these young people for so long, they are altogether turned off by any organized religion.”
Tehran-raised Jew: Iranian Jews want to see Islamic regime toppled
George Haroonian, an Iranian-American Jew who was born in Tehran, told the Post that "It is absolutely normal that young Iranian Jews like other young Iranians would participate in" the protests against the regime.
"Their arrests in general does not mean that they have been pinpointed as Jews. All are young men. The number of arrestees is so high, they do not have enough people to interrogate them."
He added that "a lot of Iranian Jews do not, traditionally, want to speak up. Families are not saying their names or asking people to fight for them. They are fearful the authorities will hurt them, like other Iranians – nothing unusual with this regime. The young man who was executed yesterday, his family did not speak up."
Haroonian, who is one of the leading experts on Iranian Jews in the US, said that "Jews who live in Iran would very much like to see a government that is not an Islamic religious," adding that the "Iranian Jewish leadership estimates 10,000 to 12,000" Jews live in Iran, although "the real number could be lower or higher."
SAG-AFTRA Condemns Iran For Arrest Of Actors & Other Protesters
December 9, 2022
SAG-AFTRA has condemned the arrest of two Iranian actors and other demonstrators during recent protests that have swept the Islamic Republic.
“Recently, two prominent Iranian actors, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, were arrested for publicly removing their headscarves in a show of solidarity with protesters,” the guild said in a statement on Friday. “They were just two of the countless people who have been arrested, harassed and killed by the Iranian government since unrest broke out after the death of Mahsa Amini, who is believed to have been beaten to death by Iran’s so-called morality police.
“Two months earlier, the Iranian government sentenced two women to death for supporting LGBTQ rights.
“SAG-AFTRA stands in support of the two actors, the activists, all supporters of human rights and the Iranian people, who deserve the right to live without the fear of death and imprisonment from brutality and persecution. We fervently hope for a world where everyone is free to be themselves without being subjected to persecution and violence.”
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