The mullahs' intimidation tactics could backfire

The protests in Iran have been going on for two months now. And now the judiciary of the Islamic Republic is already bringing the first detained demonstrators before the Revolutionary Court. According to Amnesty International, at least 21 people are currently facing the death penalty; the state-affiliated Fars news agency reported on Wednesday that the Revolutionary Court had already sentenced three protesters to death. Another had already been sentenced on November 12. They are accused of either "Muharaba", literally "war against God", or "corruption of the earth". In other words, the judiciary sees the uprising against the mullah regime as blasphemy worthy of death.

Fars, described as the unofficial news agency of the Revolutionary Guards, did not name any of those convicted, but the so-called Follow-up Committee for Insurgency Detainees has identified three of them. The group consists of journalists and human rights activists who have come together to document arrests and the fate of those arrested.

The committee has collected more information on 13 of the 21 cases Amnesty International is talking about. Overall, however, details about these individuals and what they are accused of remain largely unknown. This lack of transparency is an integral part of the mullahs' system of power.

It is clear that those convicted were denied the right to a fair trial. Amnesty's documented violations of due process include denial of basic rights such as access to a lawyer of their choice, presumption of innocence and the right to remain silent, protection from torture and much more. This is confirmed by Amin Riahi, head of the Iran Prison Atlas (IPA), a comprehensive database of political prisoners that has been dealing with political trials for 13 years.

While in some cases it is not known when the court sessions took place, in the case of Mohammad Boroughani, believed to be 17, it is known that he was sentenced to death after just one day of trial. He is accused of setting fire to the municipal government building in Pakdasht, a small town near Tehran.

On that one day of the trial, he was brought before the court along with hundreds of other defendants. Like the other victims, he only had access to a public defender. A note in Iran's procedural law from 2019 stipulates that only certain lawyers approved by the regime's judiciary can take on political cases. The lawyers on the judiciary's list are all pro-state and collaborate with the judges and prosecutors rather than defend the accused.

A judge who has handed down at least two death sentences in recent weeks is Abolghasem Salawati. According to the IPA, he has previously imposed at least 25 political death sentences and 1,335 years in prison for political prisoners in his career.

All of this in just seven years. IPA boss Riahi has followed Salawati's work closely: "It's no secret that he acts as a long arm of the secret service." , if they were processed by secret service agents in prison for a few days.

Death penalties for political prisoners are not a new phenomenon in the Islamic Republic. In the early years after the 1979 revolution, the clergy decimated all other groups involved in the revolution with mass executions. Because of his leading role in the 1988 massacres, current President Ibrahim Raisi was nicknamed the "Butcher of Tehran".

The death penalty has also been used more recently as a tool to intimidate opponents of the mullahs. “Overall there is no doubt that the death sentences and their execution are an instrument of political pressure. But the haste in the recent rulings is very strange, if not unprecedented,” Riahi said. In his opinion, the regime is succeeding in spreading fear through the hasty verdicts. "Some social groups and classes are more reserved," says Riahi.

The death sentences are nevertheless a double-edged sword for the regime. Because unlike those who are suddenly shot or killed on the street, the public has more time to deal with the story of the detainees. More is being reported about them, and some are becoming icons of the resistance, according to Riahi.

An example of this is wrestler Navid Afkari, who was executed on September 12, 2020 after a very controversial trial in the major city of Shiras. Afkari was arrested on the sidelines of a protest demonstration in 2018. He was charged with the murder of a security guard, but Afkari and his family provided evidence to suggest he could not have been at the scene. Since then, Afkari has become one of those figures that represent Iran's pursuit of justice. One of his brothers remains in custody and a sister was arrested on November 10, allegedly for taking part in the current protests.

"The death penalty is cruel, it is always associated with the risk of a judicial error that cannot be corrected," says Marco Buschmann. "Their benefit has not been proven, on such a basis no state in the world should have the right to kill a person," said the Federal Minister of Justice.

Source: WORLD / Christina Lewinsky

The fact that the Islamic Republic is staging such quick sham trials indicates a clear strategy of intimidation. Because after two months of protests, the regime has still not managed to put them down once and for all, despite the brutal use of force. So the mullahs are now resorting to every possible means.

Of the three death row inmates whose names have been identified, two are minors and the other is 22 years old. Most of those facing an imminent death sentence are also in their 20s. The death penalty may in the short term intimidate protesters.

However, one thing has become clear in recent years: those who are executed then become icons that commemorate the crimes of the regime. And that, in the medium term, will tend to strengthen resistance against the Islamic Republic, Riahi believes.