Iranian Academics Demand Justice For Students Killed In Protests
The International Community of Iranian Academics has called on the government to identify those who have murdered students and follow up on the status of university detainees.
The International Community of Iranian Academics has called on the government to identify those who have murdered students and follow up on the status of university detainees.
In an open letter Sunday, a number of academics living abroad stated that during the past 100 days of protests, more than 650 students have been kidnapped by the security and intelligence forces.
“It is a shame for the Science Ministry that 21 students have received sentences of up to five years in prison for participation in peaceful protests. Some students have also received sentences to be lashed. The sham trials of the students are held in a situation that the defendants do not even have access to lawyers,” reads the letter.
Many students have been banned from entering university campuses so quickly that it is not clear the life of how many students has been ruined, adds the letter.
The signatories have urged university officials to follow up on the situation of detainees and identify the people who have killed students during anti-government protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) announced in its latest report that from September 16 until Tuesday, December 20, at least 506 protestors have been killed, of which at least 69 were minors.
While the Islamic Republic has not provided accurate figures of those detained, the watchdog went on to say that at least 18,457 protesters have been arrested including 652 students.
In a statement Saturday, the Association of Qom Seminary Teachers urged the authorities to continue executions but use the amputation punishment to deter people from joining the protests instead of lenient punishments in the law such as exile.
The association (Jame’e Moddaresin-e Howzeh Elmiye-ye Qom) suggested that anyone who “instigates fear in society” -- supposedly by participation in anti-government protests -- is belligerent (mohareb) which in Iran's Sharia-based laws is punishable by death, crucifixion, severance of limbs, and/or exile.
Ayatollah Abbas Ka’abi, a member of the clerical group, said last week that despite normal practice in the case of murders where victims’ families can practice the “right to blood” – that is demand retribution in kind (death sentence), ‘blood money’, or forgive -- the “imam” of the society should punish a belligerent protester even if the family forgives the killer.
Another member, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, said Friday that those who participate in the protests, whether this includes direct involvement in the killing of government forces or not, should be considered as belligerents and be found guilty of “corruption on earth.”
The clerics, who are loyal followers of Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei and are regime insiders benefitting from power and perks, simply twisted a 1,400-year-old vague concept of a crime to fit the regime’s agenda against dissent.
“The severing of fingers of one hand and toes of the opposite foot could be effective [as a deterrent punishment]” if a person “instigates fear in society, without the involvement of the [opposition] media and without urging others to follow suit,” the clerics of the powerful association suggested while arguing that the ‘exile’ option is too lenient to “prevent crime”.
Several Shiite religious scholars this month voiced their opposition to this interpretation of Islamic law, but the harsh approach is what the regime prefers.
They also stated that even if no killing is involved, a protester’s “crime” should be punished by death if they commit it with the “goal of causing fear and a sense of insecurity in the society and knowing that these actions would be publicized domestically and abroad.” Exile would be totally ineffective in such cases, they declared, because such actions tarnish Iran's image in the international community and bear other costs for the government.
The reference to the media and publicizing acts of protest is a reminder of the regime’s extreme sensitivity to media coverage of its repressive acts, particularly by television channels abroad that broadcast in Persian.
The Islamic Republic on December 8 hanged 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari after a secret Revolutionary Court trial. Four days later Majidreza Rahnavard, also 23, was hanged on a street in Mashhad in front of a hand-picked group of insiders to call it a “public hanging”. At least forty protesters are in risk of execution or death penalty sentences by courts in nearly all of which their rights, such as the right to due process, are grossly violated.
Besides intellectuals, politicians and activists in Iran, some high-ranking clerics and former officials such as the prominent scholar Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaqeq-Damad have also condemned protester executions or urged leniency.
A top Sunni cleric, Mowlavi Abdolhamid Esmail-Zehi, who leads the Sunni Friday congregation of Zahedan in the capital of the restive province of Sista-Baluchestan, argued this Friday that the death sentences passed on protesters were not religiously justifiable and warned about the consequences of such harsh punishments. “No ruler has such authority,” he said defiantly.
The international community including various rights organizations and activists, western officials, and politicians have also condemned the recent executions and urged the government to put an end to death sentences. In the past two weeks many European parliamentarians have also offered political sponsorship to detained protesters who are in imminent danger of execution or being sentenced to death.
People also held rallies in several cities of the province on December 23 chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic’s ruler, referred to as “dictator” in the vernacular, as well as Basij paramilitary forces, who are the main force of repression in the region. Another slogan frequently used by the protesters is roughly translated as “Basijis, Sepahis (IRGC members), you are our ISIS” pointing out the similarities between the Islamic Republic regime and the takfiri terror group.
During his Friday prayer sermon, Abdolhamid addressed the rulers of the Islamic Republic urging them to "Return the soldiers to the barracks. Let them stay in the barracks and try to defend the homeland and refrain from hitting their own people.”
Condemning the regime’s crackdown on dissent, he recalled that the Islamic Republic came to power with the support of the people and not a military coup or armed insurrection. Only people's movement for freedom and justice would work, he noted, adding that "The revolution will last as long as the people want it. It survives as long as people support it. It is not possible to maintain the system by using weapons and soldiers, by force and prison.”
In another part of his sermons, he said saving the religion is superior to saving the Islamic government, noting that religion should not be sacrificed to save the regime.
Many have argued in the media and public forums that commitment to religion has weakened in Iran as people became more disillusioned with clerical rule over four decades.
Abdolhamid also criticized the death sentences issued for protesters and reports of rape and torture of detainees, wondering who has allowed such atrocities. "Islamic law – or sharia -- has rules. Judges and other officials should work within the framework of Islam. No one can beat the accused, force them to confess and execute them…No ruler has such authority and cannot act above God's law."
On Thursday, Abdolhamid had repeated his demands for the prosecution of those responsible for the massacre in his city, underlining that the killings in Zahedan was “a premeditated plot.” He also rejected statements by officials, including a delegation sent by Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei in November, about protesters attacking a police station before security forces opened fire at them. He emphasized that security forces fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in Zahedan, insisting that the attack was unprovoked.
Abdolhamid enjoys respect, especially among the 15 million Sunni population of the country. His popularity was dwindling over his support for hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi and recent meeting with representatives of Ali Khamenei, but he started to save face by his signature criticism of the regime and his criticism of systematic corruption in Iran.
An audio file recently leaked by the hacktivist group Black Reward revealed that the Islamic Republic planned to tarnish Abdolhamid’s reputation to curb his influence. In November, the outspoken Sunni Imam said women, ethnic and religious groups, and minorities have faced discrimination after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. He has also called for an internationally monitored referendum in Iran saying by killing and suppression the government cannot push back a nation.
