Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, March 02, 2021—The mullahs’ regime executed political prisoner Jassem Heidari, 31, alongside three other prisoners on Sunday morning on charges of “enmity against God” and membership in opposition groups. The three other executed political prisoners were Hossein Silavi, 33, Ali Khosraji, 29, and Nasser Khaffajian, all members of the Arab minority community in Iran. These executions were carried out in the Sepidar prison of Ahvaz despite widespread international protests.
Jassem Heidari was arrested in November 2017 in Tehran and transferred to Evin prison, and later to the Ahvaz Intelligence Office Detention Center. Heidari was an Austria-based refugee who was arrested upon returning to Iran.
Heidari was under severe physical and psychological torture in order to forcibly confess. The Ahvaz Intelligence Office also arrested his mother, Mrs. Marzieh Heidari, on March 11, 2018, to put him under pressure. It is worth mentioning that Jassem Heydari is one of the prisoners who was transferred to an unknown location for a long time along with several other prisoners during recent protests in Ahvaz Central Prison.
These four executed prisoners were on hunger strike since January 23, protesting maltreatment in prison.
Political prisoner Jassem Heydari was executed along with three other inmates in the early morning hours of Sunday.
His father had seen his dead body in a Ministry of Intelligence branch, according to an informed source.#Iran#HumanRights pic.twitter.com/MkzNa3r9R6
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 1, 2021
Following the recent uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan, in fear of the protests spreading, the mullahs’ regime uses executions to create an atmosphere of concern and repression by escalating the number of executions and resorting to more torture.
Previously, the Iranian regime executed seven prisoners in Gohardasht prison, Karaj, west of Tehran. Among those executed prisoners was a 42-year-old mother of two. It is worth noting that the regime carries out many executions in secret, and the real number of executions might be much higher.
The Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a statement strongly condemning the criminal executions of these political prisoners and once again urges the United Nations Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the UN Human Rights Council and the European Union to take urgent actions to save the lives of death row prisoners, especially political prisoners. The NCRI also reiterated the need for an international fact-finding mission to visit Iranian prisons and meet with prisoners. “The case of human rights violations in Iran must be referred to the UN Security Council, and the regime’s leaders must be brought to justice for four decades of crimes against humanity,” the NCRI stated.
