Execution Of Majidreza Rahnavard
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Majidreza Rahnavard (; 16 June 1999 – 12 December 2022) was the first person executed in public for charges stemming from his involvement in the
Mahsa Amini protests Civil unrest and protests against the Government of Iran, government of the Islamic Republic of Iran associated with the Death in custody, death in police custody of Death of Mahsa Amini#Victim, Mahsa Amini () began on 16 September 2022 and ca ...
. Rahnavard was accused of fatally stabbing two
Basij The Basij (, lit. ''The Mobilization'') or Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin (, lit. ''Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed''), is a paramilitary volunteer militia within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and one of its five ...
militia guards during a protest in November 2022, leading to him being charged with, convicted of, and sentenced to death for ''
moharebeh In Islamic law, ''Ḥirābah'' () is a legal category that comprises highway robbery (traditionally understood as aggravated robbery or grand larceny, unlike theft, which has a different punishment), rape, and terrorism. Ḥirābah means piracy or ...
'' ("waging war against God"). Rahnavard's execution occurred four days after the first protest-related execution, that of Mohsen Shekari.


Background

Basij The Basij (, lit. ''The Mobilization'') or Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin (, lit. ''Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed''), is a paramilitary volunteer militia within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and one of its five ...
militiamen had been sent to Iran's major cities to quell the protests that have arisen out of the
death of Mahsa Amini On 16 September 2022, 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the Islamic religious police, religious morality police of ...
. The militiamen are known to attack and detain protesters. Some protesters had fought back against the Basij. The holy city of
Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...
, Iran's second largest, had been one of the main locales for protests.


Reported crime

Mizan'','' the Iranian news agency that operates under Iran's judiciary system, claimed that Rahnavard fatally stabbed two Basij "student" volunteers, Hossein Zeinalzadeh and Daniyal Rezazadeh, on 17 November 2022 in the city of Mashhad and wounded four others. Iranian state television networks aired footage of a man chasing another man around a street corner; the man being chased tripped over a motorbike, and the man chasing him proceeded to stab him and flee afterwards. A third man attempted to stop the attack, and the assailant then stabbed the third man to death before fleeing; during his flight from the scene, he allegedly injured four other people, although the footage did not show the four other injuries. Officials claimed the assailant was Rahnavard. The Mizan report did not provide a motive for the alleged attack. Later, officials claimed, Rahnavard attempted to leave the country. He was arrested two days later, on 19 November.


Court proceedings

On 2 December,
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
said there were 28 Iranians that could face execution. Their list included Rahnavard, who had not yet been
sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
but was going through trial proceedings. According to Amnesty, none of the 28 Iranians had
fair trials Fair Trials is a UK-registered non-governmental organization which works for fair trials according to international standards of justice and the right to a fair trial, identifying where criminal justice is failing, alerting the world to the pro ...
or were afforded the right to choose their own attorneys, to be presumed innocent until guilty, or to receive an open door hearing. The
Islamic Revolutionary Court Islamic Revolutionary Court (), also known as the Revolutionary Tribunal (''Dadgahha-e Enqelab''Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', Basic Books, 1984, p.59-61) is a special system of courts in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try ...
, in which Rahnavard was convicted, has been criticized internationally for holding these "closed doors" trials and for often not allowing defendants to review the evidence that will be used against them. According to Mizan, the official news agency of the judiciary system in Iran, Rahnavard was charged on 24 November 2022 and faced the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mashhad on 29 November 2022. He was indicted of ''
moharebeh In Islamic law, ''Ḥirābah'' () is a legal category that comprises highway robbery (traditionally understood as aggravated robbery or grand larceny, unlike theft, which has a different punishment), rape, and terrorism. Ḥirābah means piracy or ...
'' (an Arabic word translating to "waging war against God"). Human rights activists alleged that Rahnavard showed signs of having been
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
d and that he was not given access to any lawyer during his trial. He allegedly had a broken arm wrapped in a cast of heavy bandages because Rahnavard had lion and sun Iranian flag tattoo . Activists and human rights organizations accused Iranian officials of using fabricated evidence and forcing
political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...
s like Rahnavard to film staged confessions; after Rahnavard's execution, officials aired heavily edited footage of him in the courtroom confessing to the murders and stating that he hated the Basij militiamen for beating and killing other protesters in clips he saw on social media. Mizan also published edited footage of Rahnavard in the courtroom saying that he made a mistake, disavowing the beliefs that led to the alleged crime, and asking to be punished as soon as possible.


Execution

Following the execution of Mohsen Shekari on 8 December, Amnesty International reported that a senior Iranian police commander had signed a document requesting the
public execution A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose ...
of one prisoner connected with the protests "in the shortest time possible," specifically requesting that the execution be public "as a heart-warming gesture towards the security forces." Rahnavard was publicly
hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
from a crane on 12 December 2022. His hands and feet were bound and there was a black bag over his head. According to unconfirmed reports, he was 23 years of age at the time of his execution. The Iranian judiciary posted photos of Rahnavard's execution confirming his death.


Responses


Domestic

Although the Iranian government tried to prevent a mourning ceremony from taking place, a crowd gathered around his parents' house and chanted against the Islamic Republic. People also sent banners and bouquets to his grandmother's house.


Iranian officials

After Rahnavard's execution, Razavi Khorasan Judiciary Chief Gholamali Sadeghi thanked the police, security, and judiciary officials for carrying out the death sentence expediently and for "answering public demands for establishing order and security and dealing with rioters and law-breakers."


International officials

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
foreign minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
s "expressed dismay" at Rahnavard's execution.
Josep Borrell Josep Borrell Fontelles (; born 24 April 1947) is a Spanish politician who served as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from 2019 to 2024. A member of the Spani ...
, the EU's foreign policy chief, stated that he spoke to Iran's foreign minister following Rahnavard's execution and that it was "not an easy conversation." Borrell also announced the EU's plans to meet in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
and approve new
sanctions against Iran There have been a number of international sanctions against Iran imposed by a number of countries, especially the United States, and international entities. Iran was the most sanctioned country in the world until it was surpassed by Russia, follo ...
for their hardline response against the protesters, the executions of Shekari and Rahnavard, and providing drones to Russia for use in the
Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...
. Shortly before the meeting in Brussels, German Foreign Minister
Annalena Baerbock Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (; born 15 December 1980) is a German politician and diplomat of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. She served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), Germany's minister for foreign affairs from 2021 to 2025. I ...
called Rahnavard's execution "a blatant attempt at intimidation" of protesters, adding, "We are making clear that we stand beside innocent people in Iran. A system that treats its people in this way cannot expect to continue to have halfway normal relations with the European Union." France condemned "in the strongest terms the public execution today of an Iranian sentenced to death following his participation in the demonstrations." The United States also issued a statement condemning the execution.


Activists and human rights organizations

Various Iranian bloggers and activists condemned Rahnavard's execution.
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
heavily criticized Iranian officials for carrying out Rahnavard's execution. In a statement, their Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Eltahawy, condemned the public execution for exposing Iran's judicial system as a tool of repression spreading fear and getting revenge against protestors who go up against the status quo. The statement further criticized Iranian officials for only granting Rahnavard one court hearing and quickly executing him fewer than two weeks later, calling the execution "arbitrary" and they stated that the expedited proceedings exposed the extent "of the Iranian authorities' assault on the right to life and their disregard for even maintaining a façade of meaningful judicial proceedings." Amnesty further called for "the international community" to pressure Iran to cease handing down death sentences and carrying out executions.
Masih Alinejad Masih Alinejad (, born Masoumeh Alinejad-Ghomikolayi (), September 11, 1976) is an Iranian Americans, Iranian-American journalist, author, and women's rights activist. Alinejad works as a presenter/producer at Voice of America Persian News Networ ...
, a United States-based dissident, called on the European Union to recall their
ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...
s in the wake of the execution while saying, "Majidreza Rahnavard's crime was protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini. The regime's method on dealing with protests is execution." Amnesty International said there were at least 17 other protesters besides Shekari and Rahnavard who were at risk of being executed for various offenses connected to the Mahsa Amini protests. They also said there were at least 21 people against whom Iranian officials were seeking the death penalty.


See also

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Public executions in Iran In Iran, public executions occurred regularly during the Qajar dynasty but declined with the Persian Constitutional Revolution and became a rare occurrence under the Pahlavi dynasty. With the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 ...
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Political repression in the Islamic Republic of Iran Political repression has been exercised in Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Islamic revolution, led Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power, thus establishing an Islamic theocratic state underpinned by a political system ...
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Capital punishment in Iran Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Iran. The list of crimes punishable by death includes murder; rape; child molestation; homosexuality; drug trafficking; armed robbery; kidnapping; terrorism; burglary; incest; fornication; adultery; sod ...
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