As Executions Increase, Iran Hangs Two People In A Blasphemy Case
According to authorities, Iran executed two individuals on Monday who had been found guilty of blasphemy by hanging them. This was one of the country’s few executions in recent months due to unrest that had gripped the Islamic Republic.
According to the Oslo-based organisation Iran Human Rights, Iran continues to be one of the most prolific executioners in the world, having executed at least 203 inmates just since the year’s beginning. Executions for blasphemy are still extremely uncommon, albeit, as in earlier instances, the punishments were reduced by the authorities.
Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, the two men who were executed, passed away in the Iranian prison of Arak. They were detained in May 2020 on suspicion of participating in the Telegram channel “Critique of Superstition and Religion,” according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. According to the commission, both men were expected to spend months in solitary confinement without access to family members.
The executions were verified by Iran’s judiciary’s Mizan news agency, which also charged the two men with defaming Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and advancing atheism.
Mizan also charged them with destroying a Quran, the sacred book of Islam. It was unclear, however, if the guys actually carried out this charge or whether similar images were circulated in the Telegram group.
The head of Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, criticised the executions for revealing the “mediaeval nature” of Iran’s theocracy.
He said in a statement that “the international community must show by its reaction that executions for expressing an opinion is intolerable.” The inaction of the international community “gives the go-ahead to the Iranian government and all like-minded individuals around the world.”
The most recent blasphemy execution in Iran was not immediately known. Other Middle Eastern nations, such as Saudi Arabia, also permit the imposition of death sentences for blasphemy.
The recent round of executions in Iran, including those of people from ethnic minority groups, comes as months-long protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in September after her arrest by the nation’s morality police have died down.
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At least four of the defendants facing death sentences for suspected acts related to the protests have already been executed. The protests were one of the biggest threats to Iran’s theocracy since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, with reports of over 500 deaths and 19,000 arrests.
According to Iran Human Rights, Iran killed at least 582 individuals in 2022, up from 333 in 2021. According to the most current study on executions by Amnesty International, Iran is the second-largest executioner in the world, after China, which is thought to execute thousands of people each year.
