Iran executes nine protesters ‘under shadow of war’ with clock ticking for four more

Iran executed nine protesters in seven days this week, including a teenager who was hanged after being ‘tortured’ into confession, his lawyer said.

Mohammad Amin Biglari, 19, and Shahin Vahedparast Kolor, 30, were hanged on Sunday after being convicted of attacking a military base during protests in January, according to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO).

The men were among at least nine political prisoners executed in Iran since the end of March including six members of the dissident People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK).

Four more people being tried in the same case are still on death row in the country and are said to be facing imminent execution.

iran

Biglari’s lawyer said he was denied access to the man and that the confession used to convict him was ‘highly questionable’ for a 19-year-old who had grown up without parental support. 

Forced confessions, which were broadcast on Iranian state media ten days after the defendants’ arrest, called them ‘deceived youth’ led by ‘American-Zionist terrorist elements.’

The hangings happened at Ghezel Hesar prison, a notorious and sprawling jail sanctioned by Western countries for torture.

IHRNGO, which monitors executions in Iran, said the killings were part of a deliberate plan by the regime to bury dissent under the cover of its current war. 

Its director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said the regime’s biggest threat was not foreign military attacks but ‘the Iranian people demanding fundamental change.’

‘Their sentence was based on torture-tainted confessions and they were tried in grossly unfair proceedings. 

‘In the past seven days alone, at least nine political prisoners, including six MEK members and three protesters, have been executed.

‘These daily executions, carried out under the shadow of war, are part of a deliberate policy to terrorise the Iranian people and prevent new protests. 

‘The Islamic Republic’s main threat is not foreign bombs, it is the Iranian people demanding fundamental change.’

Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told Metro: ‘Fearing an organised internal opposition and a new uprising, the Iranian regime is trying to crush the movement before it grows further.

‘Four decades of concessions by the West have failed to curb the regime’s nuclear ambitions, missile programmes, or regional terrorism. Instead, this inaction has given the regime the impunity to massacre political prisoners.’

Amnesty International warned in February that children and young adults made up the bulk of those arrested after the January protests and called the Iranian court system a ‘conveyor belt for executions’.

The rights group said defendants were often denied access to lawyers, tortured and held in isolation to extract forced confessions.

The executions came as the grand-niece of the Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani was pictured living a glamorous lifestyle in Los Angeles.

Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar were arrested after their US permanent resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over ties to the Iranian regime.

Hosseiny had been living in the US since 2015, when she first entered the country on a student visa, before getting permanent residency during the Biden administration in 2023.

Posts showed her travelling across the US, visiting Miami, Las Vegas and Alaska, as well as laughing and smiling at music festivals.

Other images showed her aboard private aircraft and yachts and wearing clothes that would be forbidden under Iranian law, including bikinis and miniskirts.

Her mother had called America the ‘Great Satan’ in social media posts as she lived in California, as well as espousing support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organisation, according to the State Department.

Both women’s green cards were revoked hours before ICE arrested them in LA on Friday.