Repression in Iran: these faces on death row

While since the beginning of December, four people have already been executed in Iran in connection with the demonstrations which have shaken the country since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, around twenty others risk…

Mohsen Shekari, Majid Reza Rahnavard, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, Sayed Mohammad Hosseini: these four Iranians were executed between December 7 and January 8 as part of their participation in the vast protest movement sparked by the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by the vice squad.

According to a count made by Amnesty International, around twenty other individuals are at risk of suffering the same fate, condemned to the death penalty after "show trials", which are often based on "confessions obtained under torture and fraudulent evidence", according to the NGOs.

"A number also probably underestimated while thousands of people have been imprisoned since the start of the demonstrations", lamented in mid-December Fanny Gallois, head of the Freedoms program at Amnesty France.

>> To read also: "Protesters executed in Iran: 'The regime is ready to kill and it wants to make it known'"

Artists, athletes, students or fathers of families... France 24 paints a portrait of several Iranians sentenced to death.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, executed on December 8

Mohsen Shekari.

Mohsen Shekari was the first death row inmate executed since the beginning of the protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

Accused of stabbing a member of the Basij militia, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, and of blocking traffic on an avenue in Tehran during a demonstration on September 25, he was hanged on December 8 in the greatest secrecy, less than three months after his arrest.

Originally from Tehran, the young man was employed in a cafe in a popular area of the city.

On social networks, this rap enthusiast always appeared dressed in wide pants with scarves wrapped around his head and wrists.

In a video widely relayed after his execution, we see him singing accompanied by a guitar: "I have only one wish now, and that is to see you one last time", he declaims.

"You are my lone star."

According to the opposition website 1500tasvir, his family still hoped that he would appeal and had no news of him when they learned that he had been executed.

In a video released after his death was announced, his mother screams in the street, unable to walk, in shock.

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, executed on December 12

Majidreza Rahnavard.

After Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged at dawn on December 12, just 23 days after his arrest.

He was accused of having stabbed to death two members of the security forces and wounding four others.

In the hours after his execution, state media released footage showing the young man, his hands tied behind his back, hanging from a rope attached to a crane in a square in the northern city of Mashhad. -eastern Iran.

In the days leading up to his execution, videos circulating on social media showed him with bruises on his face and arms in plaster, confessing to his crimes.

Evidence of torture and forced confessions, says Amnesty International.

According to his relatives, Majidreza Rahnavard worked in a women's clothing and shoe store in Mashhad and was an avid wrestler - a revered sport in Iran.

Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, executed on January 7

Mohammad Mehdi Karami.

Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, was executed on January 7.

The young man was arrested in early November, also accused of killing a member of the bassidji militia during a demonstration in the city of Karaj, located about an hour from Tehran.

He was therefore sentenced to death a month after his arrest by the Revolutionary Court of Karaj, during a collective trial.

"My son is a karate champion. He has won several medals in national competitions. He was even fourth in the Iranian team," testifies his father, a street handkerchief seller, in a video posted on social networks.

Originally from Kurdistan, the family had moved to Karaj to work.

Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, executed on January 7

Sayed Mohammad Hosseini.

Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, was executed on January 7 at the same time as Mohammad Mehdi Karami and on the same charges.

Very little personal information is available on him, his relatives having refused to speak to the media.

According to his lawyer, he was going to the cemetery where his parents are buried when he was arrested.

"The knife I had on me was meant to plant flowers and plants around their graves," Sayed Mohammad Hosseini told him.

In a message posted on Twitter, his lawyer also denounced acts of torture against his client during his incarceration.

"He was severely tortured, beaten. He was kicked in the head and fell unconscious. He was beaten with an iron bar on the soles of his feet and given electric shocks to different parts of his body. “, he writes.

Mohammad Boroughani, 19, sentenced to death

Mohammad Boroughani.

Mohammad Boroughani was arrested in Pakdacht, an industrial city southeast of Tehran.

Described by the Iranian authorities as "leader of the riots" in this city, he is also accused of having wounded a state agent with a knife, of having brandished a machete and of having set fire to the governor's building. .

"I went out on the street because of an Instagram story my friend posted. I don't know anything about politics," he said during his trial, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim.

Little information circulates about him.

According to Iranian media, his father made a living collecting scrap metal to sell.

The young man, meanwhile, had been working in a subcontracting company for two years.

His death sentence was upheld on January 2, raising fears that his execution was imminent.

On January 8, however, to prevent his execution, a crowd of Iranians gathered in front of Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, where he is being held.

Mohammad Ghobadlou, 22, sentenced to death

Mohammad Ghobadlu.

Mohammad Ghobadlou was arrested in Tehran on September 22, accused of running over police officers with a car, killing one person and injuring several others.

Detained with Mohammad Boroughani, he also received the death penalty.

Before the protests began, the young man worked in a hair salon in the capital.

In a video posted on social networks on November 1, his mother explains that her son is also bipolar and that, deprived of prison visits, he has not had access to his medication for weeks.

At the end of December, a group of psychiatrists published an open letter addressed to the judicial authorities, urging them to take a closer look at the mental health of the detainee and to analyze the impact this may have had on his judgment. during demonstrations.

His lawyer has also filed a request for judicial review of his case before the Supreme Court.

His death sentence was however confirmed by the judicial authorities on 24 December.

Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou, 53, sentenced to death

Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou and his wife.

Radiologist Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou was sentenced to death on December 7 in Karaj.

His wife, Farzaneh, served 25 years in Ahvaz prison in southern Iran.

According to Amnesty International, the couple had attended a ceremony in early November for the fortieth day of the death of Hadis Najafi, killed during a demonstration.

On returning home, Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou and his wife reportedly found themselves stranded near a place where a militiaman had just been killed.

Also according to the NGO, the judicial authorities tortured the doctor to obtain false confessions and forced his wife, under torture, to testify against him.

Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou is known for having worked for a long time in disadvantaged areas.

In addition to his work as a radiologist, he voluntarily treated patients in a public clinic and helped build schools, according to online publications relayed by the Iranian medical community abroad.

The latter mobilized strongly to prevent his execution and demand the release of the couple.

On January 3, the judicial authorities announced that they had overturned the verdict against the cardiologist, citing flaws in the investigation.

However, the case was sent to court and the same charges are still pending against him.

Hossein Mohammadi, 26, sentenced to death

Hossein Mohammadi.

Hossein Mohammadi was arrested on 5 November in Karaj, accused of having killed a member of the bassidjis.

A theater actor, poet and singer, he has acted in several short films and plays in Iran.

In a new sign of her support for the demonstrators, the French actress Juliette Binoche – who had already distinguished herself by publicly cutting a lock of her hair and posting on Instagram #FemmeVieLiberté, the slogan of the protest movement – has moreover posted a video of him and wrote, "No to executions in Iran. No to the death penalty."

Like Hamid Ghare-Hassanlou, judicial authorities overturned his death sentence in early January, citing shortcomings in the investigation.

The case, however, was also sent back for a new trial.

He is therefore still at risk of being executed.

Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh, 26, sentenced to death

Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh.

Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh was arrested on September 23 in Tehran for burning a garbage can and tires and destroying highway security barriers during a protest.

In a conversation with his family relayed by the BBC in Persian, the 26-year-old man, however, claims to have done "only kick in a trash can" and to have moved "already damaged barriers".

A weightlifter, he has, according to publications on social networks, won numerous medals in national competitions.

Before the start of the demonstrations, he worked, in parallel with his sports career, in the jewelry store of a shopping center in the capital.

A hundred of his colleagues have also signed a petition claiming his innocence.

In a video, his two grandmothers call on Iranian justice for his release and to drop the charges against him.

“We are two desperate old women begging you to forgive him,” one of them expresses.

Saman Seydi, 24, sentenced to death

Saman Seydi.

Saman Seydi, also known by the stage name Yasin, is a singer-songwriter of Kurdish origin.

He was arrested on October 2 in Tehran, accused of being in possession of a firearm and of having fired three times in the air during a demonstration.

The young man, who until then lived with his parents and two sisters, regularly published videos featuring his songs on his Instagram page.

The texts, mostly in Kurdish, often returned to the social injustice affecting this minority in Iran.

From the start of the protests, he wrote several songs in support of the protest movement.

"My son is an artist, my son is not a rioter," his mother hammered in a video posted on social media.

Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, 45, sentenced to death

Manouchehr Mehman Navaz.

Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, arrested on September 25 in the suburbs of Tehran, is accused of setting fire to a government building and several cars as well as attacking the post of a security guard with Molotov cocktails.

Judicial authorities demanded that he be hanged in public at the same place as the fire.

Very little information is available on him.

He is married and has two teenage daughters, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, which lists death sentences in Iran.

According to Amnesty International, other individuals, for whom information is missing, are currently on death row.

Among them, Saleh Mirhashemi Baltaghi, a 36-year-old karate champion and trainer, convicted of participating in an attack in the city of Isfahan during a protest in mid-November, according to Mizan Online.

But also "Abolfazl Mehri, Hossein Hajilou, Saeed Shirazi, Hajar Hamidi, Akbar Ghafari, Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharagholou, Toomaj Salehi, Amir Nasr Azadani, Ebrahim Rigi, Farzad and Farhad Tahazadeh, Karwan Shahiparvaneh, Reza Eslamdoost and Shahram Marouf", lists the NGO.