Press release – 12th December 2022
Majidreza Rahnavard was publicly executed less than three weeks after his arrest for participating in anti-regime protests. He was denied access to legal representation and severely tortured in prison, suffering a broken arm. Afraid that signs of torture on his body would be exposed, the mullahs ordered Majidreza’s body to be buried in secret, without informing his family.
The International Committee ‘In Search of Justice’ (ISJ) is outraged at the depravity of the Iranian theocratic regime, as it has once again resorted to horrific acts of barbarity in an attempt to suppress the nationwide uprising, now into its 87th day. The mullahs’ regime announced yesterday that they had hanged a young protester in public in the city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran. Majidreza Rahnavard was publicly executed less than three weeks after his arrest for participating in anti-regime protests. He was denied access to legal representation and severely tortured in prison, suffering a broken arm. Afraid that signs of torture on his body would be exposed, the mullahs ordered Majidreza’s body to be buried in secret, without informing his family.
The brutal public execution of Majidreza Rahnavard, comes only days after the hanging of Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old student arrested during the ongoing protests, tortured into making a confession, then sentenced to death for “waging war against God.” The clerical regime’s resort to torture and execution in an attempt to quell the escalating revolution, is testimony to their increasing panic and desperation as they try to cling to power. They are prepared to defy all legal norms and all basic human rights in their vicious retaliatory measures against their own people. The civilized world must hold them to account. More than 700 mostly young men and women have been murdered so far by the regime in their shoot-to-kill policy of confronting the protests. Over 30,000 have been arrested and many more death sentences will be carried out unless the civilized nations of the world intervene.
The ISJ calls upon the UN Security Council, the US and the EU to take immediate action to prevent further acts of barbarism by the fascist, theocratic regime. Rhetoric is not enough. Tough action is necessary. Iran’s embassies should be closed, and their diplomats expelled. The Ministry of Intelligence & Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) should be placed on the terrorist blacklists. The increasingly fanatical and vicious Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his cohorts must be held to account for crimes against humanity and made to face trial in the international courts. Above all, the West must stand up and be counted. Tehran’s depravity can no longer be tolerated. The West must show their support for the people of Iran, together with their courageous Resistance Units, who are spearheading the insurrection.