Three men sentenced to death in Iran over protests that erupted last year are at imminent risk of execution after the supreme court upheld their sentences, Amnesty International warned Friday.
Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi were arrested in November 2022 over protests in the central city of Isfahan and sentenced to death in January 2023.
Iran last year carried out the executions of four protesters, prompting international condemnation, while this year has seen a surge in executions in the Islamic republic on all charges that has alarmed campaigners.
Amnesty said the three were sentenced to death for the capital crime of enmity against God after being convicted of drawing a gun during the protests in Isfahan.
The London-based rights group said it was “gravely concerned” that the three “are at imminent risk of execution… after Iran’s supreme court upheld their unjust convictions and death sentences”.
Kazemi’s case has caused concern in Australia where some of his family live, including his cousin Mohammad Hashemi who wrote an open letter to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong asking for her support.
“Majid is only 30 years old. He is a compassionate, loving, and strong-willed person. He, like many other Iranians, participated in peaceful demonstrations to raise his voice and demand change,” he wrote in the letter, published on the petition site change.org.
Amnesty said that in an undated voice note from prison Kazemi said he was subjected to repeated torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, to make “confessions”.
Reports, including by the 1500tasvir protest monitor, said state TV had now broadcast the so-called “confessions” which are often aired just before convicts are executed.
Campaigners accuse Iran of using the death penalty to intimidate the public following weeks of protests that erupted in September last year following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s dress rules for women.
At least 582 people were executed in Iran last year, the highest number of executions in the country since 2015 and well above the 333 recorded in 2021, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said in a joint report in April.
But the pace of executions has been even more intense in 2023, with IHR now counting at least 223 executions so far this year.
© Agence France-Presse
