"Waging War Against God"

"Last night [Dec. 12] the brutes of the Islamic Republic attacked #MajidrezaRahnavard’s grandmother’s residence, arresting his uncle and brother for a few hours. They took away all the banners and flowers for the ceremony and then forcefully evicted the family from their own home."

"The Islamic Republic held #MajidReza’s “trial” 13 days ago. 3 days after conviction and sentencing by the “court” of first instance, he was executed for “Waging war against God.” Please don’t be silent."

"They allowed #MajidRezaRahnavard’s mother to visit him, and didn’t speak of execution at all. She left smiling and hoping that her son would be released soon. This morning she arrived when her son’s murderers were burying his dead body alone."

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7-year-old Hasti Narouei was also from the Baluch community. This picture shows her wearing a traditional Baluchi dress. According to local activists, Hasti was hit on her head by a tear gas canister. She suffocated. HAALVSH

 

The public furor over the murder of a young Kurdish woman arrested by Iran's Morality Police for what they construed as a moral offence when she wore her hijab too loosely, revealing a few strands of hair, led to a courageous uprising in Iran's Kurdish geography that rapidly spread in moral indignation and numbers until every major city in the country hosted its own protests against the human rights abuses that the theocracy forced on its people in the name of the faith of Shi'ite Islam. 

In efforts to speedily put down the growing insurrection where enraged Iranians called for "Death to Khamenei" and the end of the Islamic Republic, the Basij, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was  tasked to counter the protestors using any means useful to the purpose. Predictably, this has led to unrestrained brutality on the part of the Basij, motorcycle-driving 'police', not known for gentle remonstration. Close to 500 people have been killed while protesting so far, by the Iranian Security Police.

Two days ago Iran executed a second prisoner who was convicted for crimes they claim were committed during protests challenging the theocracy. He was publicly hung from a construction crane. A grim medieval punishment meant to give warning to all other protestors that this could be their fate as well. Majidreza Rahnavard's execution followed a month after he was charged of the fatal stabbing of two members of the Basij paramilitary.

 

Speedy 'trials' followed by the death penalty obviously considered an effective method of cooling the ardour of the public in its attempts to unseat the ruling theocracy. According to Iranian activists, a dozen people, perhaps more, have already been sentenced to death at closed-door hearings. 488 people have been killed since the demonstrations broke the complacency of the Ayatollahs in mid-September. Authorioties have placed another 18,200 people in detention.

The Mizan news agency under the country's judiciary influence, published images of Rahnavard hanging from the crane, hands and feet bound, black bag covering his head. In front of concrete and metal barriers to hold back a gathered crowd, masked security force members stood guard early Monday morning in the city of Mashhad, a Shi'ite holy city located east of Tehran.

The hanged protestor, according to the newspaper, had stabbed two security force members to death in Mashhad, wounding four others. State television aired footage of a man chasing another around a street corner then standing over him and stbbing him after he fell agains a motorbike. Another video showed the same man stabbing another in quick succession with the assailant finally fleeing. State TV iterates the man with the knife was Rahnavard.

The dead men were identified in the Mizan report as "student" Basij, the paramilitary volunteers deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters who have been resisting and fighting back. After Majidreza Rahnavard's execution, state television showed him in the courtroom where he declares  his hatred for the Basijis following video clips he had seen on social media of the forces beating and killing protesters.

Activists speak of Mashhad of hosting strikes, of shops closed and demonstrations that began over the death in custody on September 15 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Rahnavard was convicted in Mashhad's Revolutionary Court, tribunals that have been criticized internationally for disallowing those on trial to have their own lawyers, much less see the evidence against them.  Rahnavard was convicted of 'moharebeh', meaning "waging war against God". 

"[The public execution of a young man so soon after his arrest indicated] a significant escalation of the level of violence against protesters."

"Rahnavard was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions, after a grossly unfair process and a show trial.This crime must be met with serious consequences for the Islamic republic."

"[There is] a serious risk of mass execution of protesters [as thousands were in custody]."

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director, Iran Human Rights, Oslo, Norway

Iranians protest the death of Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police last month, in Tehran, on October 27.  Stringer/Middle East Images/File