During the trial of Hamid Noury, one of the Iranian regime’s perpetrators in the 1988 massacre, the victims and witnesses of the massacre all spoke about three equal phenomena that occurred during that fateful period, the death corridor, the death commission, and the death saloon.
During the summer of 1988, more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), were brutally executed without any fair legal procedures.
In one of his previous speeches, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei sent a warning to the Iranian people, proclaiming that the God of the 1980s is the same as the God of the 2020s.
Khamenei’s murderous intentions are becoming ever clear these days, judging by the increase in the number of the regime’s merciless executions. It has also become clear why he chose Ebrahim Raisi, who was a member of the 1988 massacre’s death commission, as his president.
Last Friday, the regime executed two people in Dameghan, raising the number of executed people over the past seven days to 32, which is a new record. On average, considering the past few months, the regime is executing 4 people every day.
In its latest statement, Amnesty International has said that the regime has embarked on a “killing spree”, killing at least 251 people this year between January 1 to June 30. Precise numbers for the number of executions are not available, so the official number may be even higher.
Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Eltahawy, said, “The state machinery is carrying out killings on a mass scale across the country in an abhorrent assault on the right to life. The renewed surge in executions, including in public, shows yet again just how out of step Iran is with the rest of the world.”
If this trend of executions continues, the number of executions is likely to surpass the total number in 2021. While the numbers are outrageous, it is not just executions where the regime’s brutality ends, as they have also been implementing limb amputation penalties. Last week, the regime amputated the fingers of a man named Sayed Barat Hosseini, who had been convicted of theft, using a guillotine machine.
This latest amputation came soon after the regime implemented the same penalty against another victim of the regime’s cruelty. Hosseini’s fingers were removed without even being given an anesthetic.
Diana Eltahawy said, “Amputation is judicially-sanctioned torture and therefore a crime under international law. All those who were involved in ordering or implementing these corporal punishments should be prosecuted in fair trials.”
It has been discovered that at least eight other prisoners are currently at risk of the same brutal punishment. Since the regime’s officials regularly enjoy international impunity and are respected by the Western governments’ appeasement policy, this cruelty will only continue.
While the regime has implemented such punishments and performed public executions less frequently over the past years, in fear of being in the agony of a collapse they have decided to increase the pressure on the people and scare them through such brutal means.
The regime’s maniacal hostility towards women who do not stick to their fabricated law of ‘proper Islamic hijab wearing’ is another factor in the regime’s fear of collapse.
It seems that due to Raisi’s failure in saving the stricken regime, Khamenei has had no choice but to increase the repression, facing an insoluble crisis.
In their July 30 publication, the state-run Shargh daily wrote about the regime’s repression of women, stating, “Since two or three weeks ago, a flood had started in the society against the non-proper hijab. In the end, it was not known from which spring it originated, and who was responsible for issuing it. It created bad moods and led to violence, and articles were written, and speeches were held against it.”
They added, “Those who do not wear the proper hijab got lucky, because the natural flood, saved them from further aggression, but experience shows that such floods will not end soon. After a while crisis makers will start a new game.”
The Sharq daily also warned, “Future floods are more destructive because new generations are not complying with us. The fact that the number of those not wearing the proper hijab has increased and the number of participants in Friday prayer ceremonies has decreased are signs of vulnerability to floods.”
This short comment shows clearly why the regime has increased its aggression toward the people, as after four decades, the regime still lacks any solution to solve Iran’s economic and social crises.
