Iran has executed a record number of prisoners while global attention has been focused on the prospect it may go to war with Israel.
Human rights observers say the Islamic Republic is using international tensions as cover while it cracks down on dissent at home.
On Wednesday, the regime carried out its largest mass execution in more than two decades, putting 29 prisoners to death in a single day.
One day earlier, Reza Resaei, a young Kurdish-Iranian protester arrested during demonstrations in 2022, was hanged in the western city of Kermanshah.
The 34-year-old was the tenth protester to be executed over the uprising sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22 year-old detained by morality police for supposedly not wearing a hijab in September 2022.
Resaei was alleged to have killed an officer during the subsequent protests. His family, who maintain his innocence, were denied a final visit before his execution, which was carried out in secret.
“[Resaei] was the most voiceless of those executed. The EU and other countries did not protest his execution a lot because the attention is elsewhere,” said Mansoura Shojaee, an Iranian women’s rights researcher and activist in the Netherlands.
“While global and domestic media attention have been focused on regional tensions with Israel, the Iranian authorities have carried out the abhorrent arbitrary execution in secret of a young man,” said Diana Eltahawy of Amnesty International.
According to Amnesty, Rasaei was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence, then sentenced to death in a sham trial.
‘Shocking’
Ms Shojaee said the surge in the number of executions in recent days has “shocked” Iranian human rights activists.
“For the first time in the recent social movements in Iran, we have four imprisoned women activists who are sentenced to death,” she said.
She said the regime had “diverted the people’s attention to war and a foreign enemy to carry out more executions – just like they did in the 1980s”.
“This distraction is precisely what the regime seeks, to further suppress domestic dissent,” she added, referring to the escalating crisis in Iran-Israel relations.
Assassination of Haniyeh
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has vowed to “severely punish” Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil.
Israeli and Western officials expect an attack in the coming days, carried out either by Iran or its Lebanon-based proxy group, Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, in Iran, executions surge. The United Nations has reported 345 so far this year, including 15 women.
Activists believe the actual number is significantly higher, as many families are forced to remain silent by pressure from the regime.
The executions sparked protests in the women’s ward of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, leading to clashes between officers and inmates. Several prisoners were severely injured.
Among the victims was Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
According to her family, she was “repeatedly punched in the chest by male military and security guards”, causing her to faint.
Israeli spies
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and ministry of intelligence have also launched a widespread operation to track down Israeli spies, according to an official of the IRGC who spoke to The Telegraph.
“They are summoning so many individuals from various sectors of the [IRGC] and the ministry of intelligence for questioning,” he said. “They are very angry.”
“I heard one of the commanders say they plan to ransack every single part of both entities,” the IRGC official added.
According to the official, “ten days after the killing [of Haniyeh], top commanders are still in shock. No one anticipated such a high-profile assassination inside Iran.”
“The level of mistrust among officials is huge,” he added. “I haven’t seen such a situation in a while.”
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