The Islamic regime has continued handing down death sentences this week in irregular proceedings that violate the legal rights of detainees, according to lawyers, human rights groups, and judiciary media.
The new execution orders follow the state killing of Gholamreza Khani Shekarab, who was hanged on Tuesday after being accused of being “one of Mossad’s operational ringleaders abroad,” according to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
The Kurdish newspaper Rudaw reported that security forces took advantage of his trip from Turkey to Iraq to abduct him last year, though the regime-run Fars News Agency reported only that agents “lured” Shekarab through a “complex operation.”
The judiciary website alleged that Mossad instructed Shekarab to assassinate an Iranian rabbi, which it claimed showed “the Zionist regime does not hesitate to even sacrifice Jews to advance its nefarious goals and accuse Iran of antisemitic acts.”
The Islamic regime also executed Mojtaba Kian on Sunday, accusing him of cooperating with “networks affiliated with Israel and the United States.” The execution came less than 50 days after he was first arrested.
Mizan claimed Kian sent “coordinates and information on facilities producing parts related to the country’s defense industries.”
Four protesters sentenced to death for killing of Basij terrorist
Four Women, Life, Freedom protesters were also sentenced to be hanged by an Iranian court this week in what human rights groups have described as a sham trial that has become widely known as the "Ekbatan case." The case follows the alleged killing of 21-year-old Basij terrorist Arman Aliverdi, in which eight protesters were held responsible.
Aliverdi died from severe head trauma caused by a hard object during the 2022 demonstrations against the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The regime’s authorities admitted they could not confirm who caused the fatal injury.
Milad Armoun, Navid Najaran, Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini, and Mehdi Imani were sentenced by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, head of Branch 15 of Iran’s Revolutionary Court, on the charges of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth), according to Mizan.
Salavati, known as the “Judge of death,” was sanctioned by the United States in 2019 for delivering “harsh sentences, including many death sentences, to scores of political prisoners, human rights activists, and peaceful demonstrators.”
Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the legal counsel for Armoun, told the reformist newspaper Emtedad that neither he nor his client was informed of the content of the ruling nor the judge’s justification for the sentencing.
"Milad has been sentenced to death on the charge of moharebeh (enmity against God), despite the fact that the charge of moharebeh had essentially been dropped from the case and amended to efsad-fil-arz," he claimed.
Armoun reportedly told the court, “I was kept in a solitary cell for months. I never possessed a weapon, nor did I strike Arman Aliverdi. The interrogators told me exactly what to say in front of the camera, warning that if I did not repeat their words, my family would be arrested.”
Lawyers representing the other defendants have also complained to Iranian media that they were shut out of legal proceedings, including court hearings, and that they have been left unable to appeal the death sentence handed to their client without first knowing the charges they were sentenced under.
Najaran had also previously been acquitted of murder charges during a criminal trial, despite now facing execution.