Iran executed nine protesters in seven days this week, including a teenager who was hanged after being ‘tortured’ into confessing, his lawyer said.
Mohammad Amin Biglari, 19, and Shahin Vahedparast Kolor, 30, were hanged on Sunday after being convicted of attacking a military base during protests in January, according to Iran Human Rights Watch (IHRNGO).
The men were among at least nine political prisoners executed in Iran since late March, including six members of the dissident People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (MEK).
Four other people on trial in the same case are still on death row in the country and are said to be facing immediate execution.
Biglar’s lawyer said he was denied access to the man and that the account used to convict him was ‘highly suspect’ for a 19-year-old who had grown up without parental support.
The forced confessions, which were aired on Iranian state media ten days after the defendants’ arrest, called them ‘deluded youth’ led by ‘US-Zionist terrorist elements’.
The hangings took place at Ghezel Hesar prison, a notorious and sprawling prison sanctioned by Western countries for torture.
IHRNGO, which monitors executions in Iran, said the killings were part of a deliberate plan by the regime to bury dissent under the cover of its current war.
Its director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said the regime’s biggest threat was not foreign military attacks but “the Iranian people demanding fundamental change”.
“Their conviction was based on confessions tainted by torture and they were tried in grossly unfair trials.
“In the last seven days alone, at least nine political prisoners, including six MEK members and three protesters, have been executed.
“These daily executions, carried out under the shadow of war, are part of a deliberate policy to terrorize the Iranian people and prevent new protests.
“The main threat to the Islamic Republic is not foreign bombs, it is the Iranian people who demand fundamental change.”
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said Metro: “Fearing an organized internal opposition and a new insurgency, the Iranian regime is trying to crush the movement before it grows any further.”
“Four decades of concessions from the West have failed to curb the regime’s nuclear ambitions, missile programs or regional terrorism. Instead, this inaction has given the regime the impunity to massacre political prisoners.’
Amnesty International warned in February that children and young people made up the majority of those arrested after the January protests and called Iran’s judicial system a “conveyor belt for executions”.
The rights group said defendants were often denied access to lawyers, tortured and held in solitary confinement to extract forced confessions.
Granddaughter of Iran’s war general who lives a life of luxury in LA
The executions came after the granddaughter of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani was photographed living a glamorous lifestyle in Los Angeles.
Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, were arrested after US Permanent resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio for ties to the Iranian regime.
Hosseiny had lived in the US since 2015, when he first entered the country on a student visa, before taking up permanent residence during the Biden administration in 2023.
Despite her family’s ties to the Iranian regime, Hosseiny’s social media the presence indicated a life contrary to it.
The posts showed him traveling around the US, visiting Miami, Vegas and Alaska, as well as laughing and smiling at music festivals.
Other images showed her on board private jets and yachts and wearing clothes that would be banned under Iranian law, including bikinis and miniskirts.
Her mother had called America ‘The Great Satan’ in social media posts while she was alive Californiaas well as supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization, according to the State Department.
Both women’s green cards were revoked hours before ICE arrested them in LA on Friday.
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