These Two Iranian Protesters Face Imminent Execution

At least two protesters are at risk of imminent execution by Iranian authorities in connection with the nationwide demonstrations that have been rocking the country since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after alleged police brutality in September 2022.

Amnesty International said on Tuesday that 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou was "at grave risk" of facing execution after Iran's Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence on January 2, making the decision final.

The protester was found guilty of allegedly running over officials with a car, killing one and injuring others after a "confession" was forced out of him under duress, according to Amnesty.

Despite the fact that Ghobadlou reportedly suffers from bipolar disorder, his mother said no adequate examinations of his mental health were conducted by Iranian authorities, Amnesty reported. His mother also said he is being denied medication while in prison.

Another protester, 19-year-old Mohammad Boroughani, is also at risk of imminent execution, according to the human-rights activists mentioned by U.K. newspaper The Guardian. The two men are being detained in the same prison near the Iranian capital and have been moved to solitary confinement, which often precedes execution.

Boroughani was found guilty of allegedly wielding a machete, setting fire to the governor's building and injuring a state agent. He has been sentenced to death by an Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran for "waging war against God" in what Amnesty condemned as "a grossly unfair sham trial."

His sentence was suspended on January 11, according to an announcement made by the Director of Public Relations of Iran's Supreme Court on Twitter, but his life now appears once again at risk.

Iranian authorities have executed four protesters since the beginning of the nationwide anti-government demonstrations. Women and young people have taken the lead, including Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard, Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini.

Shekari, who was accused of blocking a street and wounding a member of the pro-regime Basij militia on September 25, was the first protester to be executed by Iranian authorities. The 23-year-old was hanged on December 8, 2022, less than three months after being arrested and convicted of the crime of "waging war against God" in what Amnesty describes as "a grossly unfair trial."

Four days later, on December 12, Rahnavard, also 23, was publicly executed in the city of Mashhad, only two weeks after being convicted of the same crime of "waging war against God."

Karami, an Iranian-Kurdish karate champion in his early 20s, and Hosseini, 39, a volunteer children's coach, were executed on January 7. The pair had been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Alborz province on December 5, 2022, for "waging war against God" and "spreading corruption on Earth" after the death of a Basij paramilitary agent during a protest on November 3, 2022.

Karami and Hosseini's trial, Amnesty reported, lasted less than a week, and at its end, Hosseini's lawyer said that his client had been forced by authorities to "confess" under torture.

Amnesty added that their executions were carried out in secret, and without any notice given to the two men's lawyers and families.

Ghobadlou and Boroughani are not the only protesters sentenced to death who are at risk of facing execution soon, according to Amnesty. The agency warned that in the past week alone, Iranian authorities have announced five other protest-related death sentences imposed by Revolutionary Courts.

Amnesty mentions at least six protesters who are at risk of being executed: Arshia Takdestan, Javad Ruhi, Manouchehr Mehman Navaz, Saleh Mirhashemi, Saeed Yaghoubi and Majid Kazemi, who have all been convicted and sentenced to death since November.

Protesters have reportedly gathered outside of the Rajaei-Shahr Prison in Gohardasht, about 12 miles west of Tehran, where Ghobadlou and Boroughani are being held. The demonstrators are trying to prevent the two men's possibly imminent executions.

The Iranian authorities' executions of the protesters continue to gain widespread condemnation across the world, as human-rights associations and politicians call for an end to the use of the death sentence to quell demonstrations.

"It is abhorrent that the Iranian authorities persist in their state-sanctioned killing spree as they desperately seek to end the protests and cling to power by instilling fear among the public," said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement.

"The arbitrary executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, just days after their death sentences were upheld, reveal how the Iranian authorities continue to wield the death penalty as a weapon of repression, and serve as a chilling reminder that scores of others remain at risk of execution."