Iran executes Mojahed Kourkouri over 2022 anti-government protests

A person has been executed in Iran, three years after he was arrested in the course of the nationwide anti-government protests in 2022, the judiciary says.

Mojahed Kourkouri, often known as Abbas Kourkouri, was sentenced to loss of life after being convicted of armed assaults and membership of a “insurrection group”, in keeping with the judiciary’s Mizan information company.

He was accused of killing seven individuals, together with nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak, throughout protests within the metropolis of Izeh. Kian’s household mentioned he was killed by safety forces, however authorities maintained {that a} “rioter” shot him.

Amnesty Worldwide mentioned Kourkouri was subjected to torture and that his trial was “grossly unfair”.

Kourkouri is the eleventh particular person identified to have been executed in relation to the protests, which had been sparked by the loss of life in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who was detained by morality police in Tehran in September 2022 for allegedly sporting her hijab “improperly”.

Tons of of individuals had been killed and 1000’s detained in a violent crackdown by safety forces, which portrayed the protests as “riots”.

Kourkouri was accused of opening hearth on a automobile carrying Kian Pirfalak and his household in Izeh, within the south-western province of Khuzestan, on the peak of the unrest that November.

State authorities blamed “terrorist brokers” for Kian’s killing, and later arrested Kourkouri throughout an armed raid the next month, throughout which Kourkouri was shot and injured within the knee, human rights teams mentioned.

Kian’s household has repeatedly mentioned it doesn’t assume Kourkouri was concerned within the boy’s killing.

At Kian’s funeral, the boy’s mom was overheard in a video telling mourners: “Hear it from me myself on how the capturing occurred, to allow them to’t say it was by terrorists, as a result of they’re mendacity.”

“Plainclothes forces shot my little one. That’s it,” Zeynab Molaei mentioned.

Later that the day, she appeared to recant the remarks in a state TV interview, warning that they need to “not be misused”. She appeared visibly distressed, prompting many on social media to warn that she may need been coerced.

The judiciary’s announcement that Kourkouri had been executed sparked condemnation amongst human rights teams.

Amnesty Worldwide mentioned Kourkouri’s trial was unfair as a result of he had been denied entry to an independently chosen lawyer and his confessions, which had been broadcast on Iranian state media, had been pressured.

It added that following his arrest, Kourkouri was held in solitary confinement and repeatedly subjected to torture and different ill-treatment, together with extreme beatings.

Kourkouri was initially sentenced in April 2023, however a judicial evaluation of his case was filed to the Supreme Court docket in January 2024, Amnesty mentioned. His conviction was later upheld and his sentence was despatched for implementation later that 12 months, it added.

The director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, mentioned Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s different leaders “have to be held accountable for the extrajudicial killing” of Kourkouri, “in addition to for the murders of Kian Pirfalak and 1000’s of different harmless individuals”.

“The worldwide neighborhood should break its silence within the face of this tsunami of executions carried out by the Islamic Republic,” he added.

Kurdish human rights group Hengaw mentioned at the very least 582 prisoners, together with 19 political, non secular, and safety inmates, had been executed in Iranian prisons to date this 12 months.

The final particular person to be executed in reference to the 2022 protests was Reza Rasaei in August final 12 months.

The 34-year-old was sentenced to loss of life in 2023 after what Amnesty known as a “grossly unfair” trial that relied on pressured confessions, which they mentioned had been “obtained beneath torture and different ill-treatment, together with beatings, electrical shocks, suffocation and sexual violence”.

Iranian authorities accused him of getting an element within the loss of life of a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the course of the protests – a cost Rasaei denied.

He was executed in secret and his household was not given prior warning, Amnesty mentioned.