Iran Executes 3 Men Linked To Anti-Government Protests

Facts

• Iran on Friday reportedly carried out the execution of three men over their alleged role in a shooting attack that killed three security personnel in Isfahan in November last year amid nationwide anti-government protests.¹
• Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi — all of them in their 30s— were executed at dawn in Dastgerd prison in the central city of Isfahan, with security forces reportedly burying their bodies in and around the city.²
• The announcement, made by the judiciary news outlet Mizan, comes a day after the US urged Tehran to hold back the executions, citing human rights violations as it alleges the three men were condemned in 'sham trials.'³
• This echoed human rights advocates, who allege that their fast-tracked trials relied on confessions extracted under torture — a claim that Tehran denies. Following their execution, state media re-ran video posts presented as the confessions.⁴
• Family members, supporters, and cultural figures had ramped up a campaign to halt the executions over the past week, holding vigils outside the prison and arguing that authorities had failed to produce evidence of their responsibility for the deaths.⁵
• Iran has so far executed seven people in connection with the 2022 protests, which broke out in mid-September after the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in the custody of the morality police for allegedly not adhering to the dress code. At least 582 people were executed in the country last year, up from 333 in 2021.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Iranwire, ³CNN, ⁴Reuters, ⁵Guardian and ⁶Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Pro-Iran narrative, as provided by Tehran Times. Though enemies that have long sought to weaken Iran's stability and security have popped up to make bogus allegations, the Iranian legal system has fairly found these terrorists guilty of wrongdoing. They have been held accountable for planning and carrying out an attack against bystanders and police forces in Isfahan to disrupt national security in cooperation with the Albania-based MKO terrorists.
• Anti-Iran narrative, as provided by Euronews. This is just the latest execution carried out against anti-government demonstrators, as the Islamic Republic's killing machine has been at full throttle to create societal fear in the nation. The death penalty is the regime's ultimate tool of intimidation and oppression to maintain its iron grip on power, and the rest of the world must simply do more in order to stop Iran’s regime.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Irna. While many Western states are quick to make false accusations about atrocities in Iran, it's they that — ironically — continue to violate human rights. From the UK banning environmental rallies to the French government responding to its people’s demonstrations with police violence, the West is blind to its own wrongdoings.

Predictions