HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSProtests spread Iran despite increasing executions
NEWSIRAN NEWS

Protests spread Iran despite increasing executions

By Mahmoud Hakamian
Retirees - pensioners - Social Security Organization - protests - Ahvaz - Khuzestan Province - May 31, 2023
Retirees of the regime's Social Security Organization protesting low pensions - Ahvaz, southwest Iran - May 31, 2023

People from all walks of life in Iran have been taking to the streets to voice their protests, especially over economic difficulties, despite the fact that the mullahs’ regime has been increasing the number of executions throughout the country. In the past ten days 33 inmates have been sent to the gallows and at least 144 were executed across the month of May.

Protesters are also continuing their nightly attacks against regime targets, with the latest site being a so-called judiciary building in the city of Kazerun in south-central Iran.

People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 675 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

People in Abadanan, western Iran, were involved in a general strike on Thursday protesting the murder of a local Kurdish student by the name of Bamshad Soleimankhani by regime operatives. Authorities were for some time preventing his family from holding a ceremony yesterday.

After nightfall activists began reporting that authorities dispatched more than 50 security vehicles to confront the protesting youth who were in control of the city’s main street. Some of the security units were suffocating as heavy winds transferred the tear gas they fired on locals back to their own positions, activists explained. Other reports indicate the security units also opened fire on the locals, while protesters reportedly attacked and damaged several police vehicles.

Locals were spreading their protests in different districts across the city, making it extremely difficult for the regime’s security forces to confront and quell their rallies. Activists, however, are reporting that dozens of protesters were injured as regime security forces opened fire using shot-gun pellet rounds.

Brave protesters have recently attacked a building of the regime’s so-called judiciary in the city of Kazerun located in south-central Iran. Activists say this attack was in response to the regime’s increasing number of daily executions and in memory of MEK supporter Gholamreza Khosravi who was executed nine years ago today for providing financial support to a dissident satellite TV network affiliated to the MEK.

Twenty-one American dignitaries have issued a statement strongly criticizing the agreement between the Belgian government and the Iranian regime that led to the return of Tehran’s convicted diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi to Iran. The Belgian government succumbing to Tehran’s geopolitical crimes is both disappointing and concerning, the statement reads, adding this only encourages the mullahs’ regime in its continued state-sponsored terrorism and hostage diplomacy.

On May 26, the Omani government announced the brokering of a prisoner exchange between Belgium and Iran’s regime. The Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) had strongly condemned Assadi’s release.

Assadi was convicted of orchestrating and leading a terrorist attack that targeted an NCRI rally near Paris in 2018. This incident has been described as the largest criminal act in Europe since World War II.

Iran’s regime took a Belgian aid worker as hostage to put pressure on Brussels and force the Belgian government to succumb to its demands and release Assadi.

American dignitaries strongly criticize prisoner-swap agreement between the Iranian regime and Belgium
American dignitaries strongly criticize prisoner-swap agreement between the Iranian regime and Belgium

The NCRI U.S. Representative Office held a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday providing new information on the Iranian regime’s widespread international network focusing on bypassing sanctions and providing necessary funding for Tehran’s support for global terrorism.

The Petrochemical Commercial Company International (PCCI) is one of the regime’s main entities involved in bypassing sanctions, selling oil and petrochemical products, and transferring the revenue to providing massive amounts of funding for the regime’s armed forces, according Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of the NCRI-U.S. Representative Office.

Two Baluchi inmates by the names of Aria Parvizi and Ashkan Sohrabi were executed early Thursday morning in Kahnuj Prison located in Kerman Province, south-central Iran, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

Three inmates in Rajaie Shahr Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran, were executed early Wednesday morning, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Two of the victims have been identified as Hossein Rousta and Nader Nouri. State media and those associated with the regime’s judiciary have yet to report these executions.

Reports also indicate that a Baluch prisoner by the name of Amir Narouie was executed early Wednesday morning in Zabol Central Prison of Sistan & Baluchestan Province in southeast Iran.

Iran - executions - hangings - human rights violations
Iran’s regime has executed at least three inmates in Rajaie Shahr Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran – May 31, 2023

Shareholders of the regime’s bankrupt “Ayandeh Bank” in Tehran held a protest gathering on Thursday demanding their savings be provided to them. These shareholders have been waiting 22 months for answers. Bank security guards eventually attacked the peaceful rally, leaving a number of people injured.

Locals in the districts of Tehranpars and Sadeghiyeh of the Iranian capital Tehran were in the streets on Wednesday night and chanting anti-regime slogans, including “Down with the dictator!” in a reference to regime dictator Ali Khamenei.

Retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran were holding a protesting gathering on Wednesday demanding their rights while protesting their low pensions.

Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions in correspondence with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.

The government has long provided many hollow promises of increasing pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.

Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.

Deaf individuals in the city of Mashhad in northeast Iran held a protest rally on Wednesday demanding regime authorities acknowledge their rights based on the state’s own laws.

On Sunday, another group of disabled individuals were rallying outside the regime’s Majlis (parliament) in the capital Tehran demanding answers about the government’s budget regarding the country’s disabled individuals and they’re seeking adequate living conditions. The protesters were saying the regime has long cancelled necessary budgets that would provide for their basic needs.

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.

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