Dhe second execution of a protester has also sparked fierce criticism from Iran’s leading clergy. Former Court President Ayatollah Morteza Moghtadai said a death sentence required murder. That was not the case with the person who was executed on Monday.
Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Ayazi, who, like Moghtadai, teaches at the theological seminary in Qom, contradicted the view that the current protests were a “war against God and against the Islamic order” (moharabeh), as the Islamic leadership put it Republic claims. Iranian law provides for the death penalty for this offence. Rather, the demonstrators protested for their rights, but the security forces prevented them from exercising their rights.
The most influential contemporary Shiite theologian, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who resides in Najaf, Iraq, expressed concern about developments in Iran. He criticized the way Iran’s Shia clerics exercise their power, saying: “I have approached them on several occasions but have not been heard.”
torture by the regime
Paris-based Shiite reformist Mohsen Kadivar was convinced that the executions were carried out on the direct orders of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Criticism of the handling of the protests is also increasing within the Tehran leadership. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said the Islamic Republic is no longer able to solve certain problems. Get a problem solved, be it too late and worthless.
The 23-year-old fruit seller Majid-Reza Rahnavard was publicly hanged in Mashhad before sunrise on Monday under a heavy police presence and immediately buried. He is said to have attacked Basij militiamen with a knife and killed two of them. The state media broadcast the “confession” of the apparently severely tortured young man. The Iranian journalist Masoud Kazemi reconstructed his story and came to a different conclusion.
Tehran law professor Mohsen Borhani noted that no footage of what happened on November 17 was shown. It is also not known what weapon the Basijis carried with them and how they attacked Rahnavard. The Basij had removed all surveillance cameras in the street before their attacks.
