Inhumane Sentencing of Amputation of Two Prisoners’ Fingers
As Khamenei’s new president heads to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, the wave of executions in Iran continues. In just 4 days, 14 prisoners have been sent to the gallows.
On Thursday, September 19, 2024, the regime executed Morteza Shah Esmaili, 35, and Mannan Barahouei, 50, in Yazd, along with Akbar Azizi and Hamed Jahedi in Karaj.
On Tuesday, September 17, 2024, Hamidreza Hassan Zehi Sani, 60, was executed in Bandar Abbas, while Ali Morad Hassanzadeh, 33, was executed in Gorgan. On Monday, September 16, 2024, Yahya Zargari, 32, Abdoljaleel Ehsani, 33, and Behnam Mehdi Jahanpour, 21, were hanged in Shiraz, while Mohsen Safari was hanged in Isfahan.
On Sunday, September 15, 2024, Saeed Khajeh Heidari, 30, and Sasan Bozorgzad, 33, were executed in Shiraz, and Arastoo Safarqomi, 35, and Rasoul Pourmajed, 45, were executed in Tabriz.
This brings the total number of recorded executions on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday to 14, and the total number of executions since Pezeshkian took office to at least 178 in the Iranian months of Mordad and Shahrivar (July 22 till September21).
Moreover, on September 16, 2024, regime-controlled media (Etemad Online) announced that two prisoners convicted of theft had been sentenced to finger amputation. The inhumane sentencing of finger amputation comes at a time when billion-dollar thefts and embezzlement by the regime’s leaders and various factions have become routine, without anyone being arrested or punished.
On September 26, 2024, the regime-affiliated Asr Iran website reported: “At the end of Iranian year of 1402 (March 2024), the total loans given to employees of 11 banks exceeded 124 trillion tomans, mostly with low interest rates and long-term repayment plans.” Regime-affiliated media also reported in December 2023 about a €3.7 billion embezzlement scandal in Debsh Tea Company, linked to the IRGC and Khamenei’s office. Yet, the masterminds behind these astronomical thefts have neither been named nor punished by the judiciary.
In another tragic event, a 17-year-old girl named Yalda Rahimi, from Baghmalek, Khuzestan, committed suicide on September 16, 2024, after visiting the so-called Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation to request aid for school expenses, only to have her request rejected.
The religious fascism ruling Iran vainly attempts to prevent the explosion of public anger and social protests by resorting to torture, executions, inhumane sentences, and creating an atmosphere of fear and terror. Continued political and economic relations with this regime of executions, terror, and warmongering is a betrayal of universal human rights principles and must be conditioned on the cessation of executions and torture in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
21 September 2024
