Latest Executions in Iran Mark “Plunge into New Realms of Cruelty”

Amnesty International says the Iranian authorities’ executions of two men this week after “egregiously unfair” trials mark a “harrowing descent into new realms of cruelty.”

Mohammad Ghobadlou, a 23-year-old protester with a mental disability, and Farhad Salimi, a from Iran’s Kurdish Sunni minority, were executed on January 23, sparking international condemnations.

The executions came as the authorities intensified their use of the death penalty in the aftermath of the nationwide protests that erupted in September 2022 to crush dissent and terrorize the population.

“The arbitrary execution of Farhad Salimi lays bare a distressing pattern of the Iranian authorities’ disproportionate use of the death penalty against Iran’s oppressed ethnic minorities. The arbitrary execution of Mohammad Ghobadlou dumbfounded his loved ones and lawyer, who were awaiting his retrial, unaware that judicial authorities at the highest levels bypassed legal processes in secret and blatantly flouted the basic principles of humanity and the rule of law,” Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on January 24.

Ghobadlou was sentenced to death for allegedly killing a police officer during nationwide protests in September 2022. 

The defendant faced an unfair trial marred by torture allegations, and appeals to take into account his mental health condition were rejected. 

His execution was the ninth in connection with the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement.

Salimi is the fourth man since November 2023 to be executed from a group of seven Kurdish Sunni men sentenced to death over a decade ago in an unfair trial that lasted only a few minutes and relied on torture-tainted “confessions.” 

There are mounting fears that the authorities are intent on imminently carrying out the executions of the three remaining men from the group.

“The Iranian authorities’ relentless killing spree in the aftermath of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising, which has led to the arbitrary execution of hundreds of people after grossly unfair trials in the past year, underscores the need for the renewal and extension, respectively, of the mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the UN Fact-Finding Mission in the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council,” Eltahawy said.

“It is also time for states to initiate criminal investigations under the principle of universal jurisdiction against all those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law, including top Iranian officials” she added.