Three more participants in anti-government protests were executed in Iran

Three more participants of anti-government protests were executed in Iran. Earlier, human rights defenders repeatedly stated that the trial against them was conducted in violation of the law, and that the incriminating testimony was obtained by force.

Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi and Said Yakuby were executed on Friday, May 19, in Isfahan prison. They were charged with complicity in the incident on November 16 last year, when three military police officers were killed during the suppression of mass protests.

The court verdict, however, does not refer to murder, but to “rebellion against God” – this is the wording that the Iranian authorities often use in the cases of political activists.

The accused did not admit their guilt.

• According to estimates by Iran Human Rights, more than 200 death sentences have been carried out in Iran since the beginning of this year, compared to 582 last year. Among them, death sentences were handed down to participants of civil protests held in Germany after the death of Mahsa Amina.
• In September 2022, protests began in Iran related to the death of 22-year-old activist Mahsa Amina, who was arrested by the moral police for violating the law on wearing a hijab. The Iranian authorities brutally suppressed the protests with the use of force. Human rights activists reported the death of more than 500 people, including more than 400 participants in the protests and several dozen employees of law enforcement agencies, and about 18,000 were detained.