Iranian regime authorities in Ghezel Hesar prison executed Sunni political prisoner Khosrow Besharat on May 15, after 15 years of prison and torture in Iran’s prisons. He had been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for execution two weeks ago. He was hanged despite warnings and call
Khosrow Besharat was arrested in Urmia in December 2009 along with six other people. They were transferred to the Urmia Intelligence Department, where they were subjected to brutal torture to extract forced confessions.
In March 2016, Mohammad Moghiseh, a criminal judge renowned for his human rights abuses, sentenced the to death. In June 2018, Abolghassem Salavati, another notorious judge, confirmed their death sentence. Both Moghiseh and Salavati have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for their human rights abuses and their role in executing dissidents.
The regime’s Supreme Court upheld these sentences in 2019. The seven prisoners were accused of killing the regime’s supreme leader’s representative in Mahabad during the December 2009 uprising.
The regime has already executed five other prisoners in this dossier in the past months, including Anwar Khezri, Farhad Salimi, Davood Abdollahi, Ayub Karimi, and Qasem Abesteh. All five were held in Ghezel Hesar prison. The last prisoner in this case, Kamran Sheikheh, is still under a death sentence.
This latest execution comes against the backdrop of increasing pressure against political prisoners. On May 5, the regime’s so-called Revolutionary Court in Isfahan sentenced political prisoner Mahmoud Mehrabi, 35, to death. The regime’s Aftab News website claimed that during the 2022 anti-regime uprising, Mehrabi “spread content including instructions on using handmade weapons, incited destruction of public property, instigated people to war and massacre, and insulted sanctities.”
On April 28, the regime’s judiciary charged Masoud Jamei, a 47-year-old political prisoner in Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, of corruption on earth, membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and conspiracy to overthrow the regime. These are vaguely defined charges that the regime uses to sentence dissidents to death. Jamei, who was arrested in August 2023, is suffering from severe stomach cancer, liver disease, high blood pressure, and severe internal infection, but prison authorities are denying him treatment.
The regime has also issued death sentences for other political prisoners, including Toomaj Salehi, Reza Rasai, and Habib Deris, all arrested on charges of taking part in anti-regime protests and raising their voice against the regime’s repression.
In the fog of the war in Gaza and to hide its own weaknesses and setbacks at home and in the region, the regime has started 2024 by ramping up executions across the board. In the past 26 days alone, the regime has executed at least 26 people.
In tandem with the execution of Khosrow Besharat, Iranian regime authorities executed four other prisoners in Ghezel Hesar. And on the previous day, the regime executed three prisoners in Ilam Central Prison. On May 12, another prisoner was executed in Isfahan’s Dastgerd Prison.
However, the killing spree in Iran’s prisons have not had the effect that the regime hopes for. While the regime is trying to suppress the population into obedience and submission, Iran’s rebellious youth continue to resist against the regime by targeting the regime’s centers of repression in every corner of Iran. And the more the regime resorts to repression and violence, the more it loses its hold on power in the country.