Throughout the month of October, the Iranian regime kept up with their continuing trend of executions in their prisons, along with the forceful pressure on political prisoners. Reports have also indicated that security forces have arbitrarily opened fire on citizens in several cases, leading to many being severely injured or killed.
Human rights violations are sadly commonplace where the mullahs’ regime is concerned. From violations of the right to life to the right to freedom of speech, and including the rights of religious minorities and the conditions of political prisoners, many offenses have taken place during the past month.
At least 27 death penalties were carried out in various Iranian prisons during October 2021. 12 victims were convicted of drug-related charges and another 13, including a woman, were charged with murder.
In the Iranian Kurdistan province at the Revolutionary Court of Saqqez, Kayvan Rahimi was sentenced to four months behind bars after being charged with promoting ‘propaganda against the state’ because of his social media activities.
On October 19, 2021, the Interrogations Office of Evin Courthouse in Tehran arraigned three Christian citizens, Mr. Joseph Shahbazian, Ms. Somayyeh (Sonia) Sadeq, and Ms. Mina Khajavi Qomi, of their charges.
The three individuals were also charged with circulating propaganda against the state. The reason was that they were accused of running a Zionist network and establishing a Zionist house church.
In further violations of the rights of religious minorities, three Sunni political prisoners, Mohiyeddin Ebrahimi, Mohiyeddin Tazehwared, and Davoud Jabbari, were transferred to an unknown location by prison authorities from the Central Prison of Urmia in the West Azerbaijan province. Ebrahimi and Tazehwared previously attempted to appeal their death sentences.
The Iranian regime increased pressure on political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and detained human rights activists. In some cases, prison authorities hired violent prisoners and dangerous convicts to beat up and brutalize political prisoners.
In several cases, authorities have gone as far as to file false charges against political prisoners, completely violating their rights. As a result, many prisoners have resorted to going on hunger strikes to obtain their rights. Khaled Pirzadeh, a political prisoner detained at the Shaiban Prison in Ahvaz, has been on a hunger strike since August 23 in protest of the prison authorities’ refusal to honor his conditional release agreement after already serving two-thirds of his sentence. He is also protesting the violent treatment that his family has been subjected to by security forces.
In a case from October 8, prison authorities at the Greater Tehran Penitentiary hired several dangerous criminals to attack political prisoners Akbar Baqeri, Pouya Qobadi, Shapout Ehsani-rad, Esmail Gerami, and Akbar Shirazi with knives and machetes.
The assailants stabbed Messrs. Baqeri, Qobadi, and Shirazi several times and broke several thermos flasks on their heads. The three victims were transferred to the prison’s dispensary because of severe injuries.
Following the attack, the victims and several other political prisoners were forcibly transferred to another ward in the prison, known as the ‘closed-door ward’ which reportedly has substandard conditions.
On October 20, regime security forces opened fire on three fuel carriers in Sistan and Baluchestan province, killing at least four citizens.
Border patrols opened fire at the point-blank range on Zhiyan Alipour on October 14, 2021, without warning. Mr. Alipour was from a village near Sardasht and married with two children. His brother, Houshmand Alipour, is a political prisoner detained in the Prison of Sanandaj.
