Tehran, May 19 (EFE).- Iran executed this Friday three prisoners sentenced to death for the murder of three members of the security forces in November during the protests unleashed by the death of Mahsa Amini, bringing the number to seven. of protesters hanged.
Saleh Mirhashmi, Majid Kazemi and Saeed Yaqoubi were executed this morning in the city of Isfahan, in the center of the country, for the death of a policeman and two members of the Basiji Islamic militia, reported Mizan, an agency of the Judiciary.
The three prisoners had been sentenced to death on the charge of “enmity with God” (moharebeh) in a trial that lasted four days and in which forced confessions were used, denounced Amnesty International (AI).
Kazemi claimed in a recorded phone conversation with his girlfriend that he had been forced to confess to the crimes he was accused of after interrogators tortured him, repeatedly staged executions and threatened to kill his brother.
The death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on May 10 and last Wednesday the families were allowed to say their last goodbyes to the prisoners.
In recent days there have been calls by activists and human rights groups to stop the executions, and there have even been small nightly protests in front of the Isfahan prison where they were held, without success.
With the hanging of Mirhashmi, Kazemi and Yaqoubi, there are already seven people who have been executed for alleged crimes related to the protests unleashed by the death of Amini, in mid-September.
Her death in police custody after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic headscarf sparked the biggest protests against the Islamic Republic and the country’s theocratic system in decades.
The protests have disappeared after a strong state repression that has caused some 500 deaths and thousands of arrests.
Of all the forms of protest and disobedience, the only one that survives now is the rejection of the veil by many women despite the authorities’ attempts to reinstate the use of this garment.
High number of executions
Iran is the world’s leading country in applying the death penalty, with 576 executions carried out in 2022, a substantial increase from 314 the previous year, according to AI.
So far in 2023, the Persian country has executed more than 200 people, most of them for crimes related to drug trafficking and possession.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, estimated that a dozen people are executed every week in the country.