Truth Absent in Case of Executed Protester

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was arrested on November 19 and executed 23 days later. 

He was hanged from a crane in the northeastern city of Mashhad on the morning of December 12 after being convicted of waging war against God, a charge that carries a death sentence.

Media outlets close to the government say that Rahnavard stabbed and killed two members of the paramilitary Basij force, identified as Daniyal Rezazadeh and Hossein Zeinalzadeh, during protests in Mashhad on November 17.

Rahnavard, like many of those arrested during the nationwide protests, did not have the right to a lawyer of his choice or the opportunity to defend himself.

The young man was a resident of Hor-Ameli street in Mashhad. The day of the incident, was the last day of the nationwide strikes in November. Satellite images show there are a significant number of shops on this street and in the surrounding neighborhood. 

There is no evidence to confirm Hor-Ameli Street's shops joined the strikes on that day, but the governor of Mashhad said: "At the intersection of Ameli rioters demanded that people close their shops, but police dispersed them. Then one of them suddenly attacked five Basij members with a knife. Two people were martyred and three were injured."

Rahnavard was neither a protester, nor, as the governor put it, a "rioter". He lived on the same street. His house was 90 meters from the spot where the murders took place.

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Forced confession

The court's chosen lawyer for Rahnavard emphasized in the first court hearing that the defendant "performed this action with a kitchen knife". The prosecutor's representative also showed the knife in the court. 

Rahnavard allegedly took a knife from the kitchen of his house for a reason that the court did not seek to discover, travelled 90 meters and apparently killed two people. In part of the video of his trial, Rahnavard said: "I came out of the house and stabbed the first one.

"I work in a fruit shop. I was not feeling well on that Thursday, and I came home early. Everything was calm until 1.30 PM. Then there was a noise. Tear gas was fired. My mother was waiting in one of the shops, and my brother wanted to go and bring her home. I was looking outside from our window," he told the judge. 

"Officers were beating people... I opened the door and a group of Basijis were in front of the door... I had not consumed anything. A group of Basijis told me to go inside. I don't understand what I did," he added. 

In this first broadcast video of Rahnavard he was seen with an injured hand, blindfolded, and surrounded by masked security forces. This video was interrupted nine times.

Iranian authorities routinely extract confessions from political prisoners or their family members by force, which are then broadcast for propaganda purposes.

Willing to die to escape the pressure

A day after Rahnavard’s execution, a video of him addressing popular footballer Ali Karimi was released. This video went out with the logo of the 114th Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence headquarters. In it Rahnavard was wearing the same clothes as on the day of his arrest, but his hair and beard were slightly longer than that day.

In the video Rahnavard blames Karimi and then Instagram for the nationwide protests in Iran. A few hours later a second version of this video was released. 

On December 15 another video titled "The Will of Majidreza Rahnavard" was released, first on Telegram channels affiliated with the IRGC and then on news websites.

The prosecutor's representative said at his trial that "the accused was strongly influenced by social media and had prepared a manuscript some time ago, and in some parts of it he had written in his own handwriting, 'Don't read the Quran to me after my death. Don't cry. Drink alcohol.'"

Rahnavard was tried by the Mashhad Revolutionary Court. A lawyer in Tehran told IranWire that revolutionary courts do not have the jurisdiction to deal with murder cases which is why Rahnavard was charged with waging war against God.

The lawyer added, "It is clear from the confessions of this person that he had no lawyer, he did not defend himself at all and did not ask for any reduction in punishment. He confessed and got punished. In such cases, considering past examples, it seems that the accused was under so much pressure that he preferred to get out of that situation, even by dying."

Iran carried out its first execution of a protester on December 8, hanging Mohsen Shekari after convicting him of waging war against God for allegedly wounding a Basij member.

According to information gathered by IranWire, a total of 28 protesters have been sentenced to death since the eruption of the nationwide protest movement that followed the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police. Amini was being held for allegedly wearing a headscarf improperly.