Feb 22 2021

According to human rights activists, Iranian political prisoner and Dervish Behnam Mahjoubi lost his life due to the regime’s refusal to send him to a hospital immediately. For a long while, authorities have deprived him of essential medical care, which put his life at risk.

Even on February 16, human rights defenders reported that he had been killed under torture in Evin Prison three days ago. His acquaintances had acknowledged that the regime covered-up the news, fearing to spark public ire and international condemnations.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Ebrahim Allah-Bakhshi, a Dervish and a friend of Mahjoubi, declared Mahjoubi’s death at Tehran’s Loghman hospital. Allah-Bakhshi tweeted, “Reliable source from Loghman hospital have said that Behnam Mahjoubi has died, but they have been ordered to keep the apparels online for three days.”

On December 27, 2020, Amnesty International had issued a warning about his health condition, condemning the regime’s torture by denying access to medication. Amnesty also called on the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei through mentioning his Twitter account on Persian to release Mahjoubi as soon as possible.

“Prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi, from Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish religious minority, is being subjected to torture by the Iranian authorities, including through the denial of access to his medication. He must be released NOW!” Amnesty’s Iran desk tweeted.

On Monday, February 15, Mahjoubi’s family had said that Behnam’s health condition was critical, and he can only breathe on ventilator support. His cellmates reported that Behnam had three panic attacks in a short period of time. However, the prison medical staff refused to take him to a hospital.

Notably, Iranian authorities killed this political prisoner while he had not been convicted of the death penalty. However, to terrify society, authorities purged this opponent silently.

“His cellmates’ protest finally compelled prison guards to transfer Mahjoubi to a hospital while he had repeatedly vomited and lost his power of speech and was bleeding from the ear,” a source familiar with the issue reported. Behnam’s mother said that authorities refused to allow him to see her son, although Loghman hospital’s staff had told her that Behnam’s vital signs are fragile.

“They say his vital signs are down, but the agents won’t let me see my child. I don’t know why they don’t let me see my child,” she said in a video on Monday, adding, “I’m a mother, and I want to see my child.”

“Mahjoubi was arrested in 2018 during protests by Gonabadi Dervishes in Tehran and was sentenced to two years in prison. In August 2019, he was sentenced to two years in prison and two years prohibition from participation in [political activities],” reported the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) on February 16.

NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi slammed the Iranian regime’s ill-treatment against Mhjoubi, as well as judiciary’s secrecy about his demise. “Prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi was persecuted and tortured, and yet the criminal Judiciary in #Iran prevents publication of the news of his death and its reason. They conceal what they did to him over three years of imprisonment in Evin and Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital,” she wrote on Twitter.

Calling on the international community to compel the Iranian regime to release all political prisoners and accept a fact-finding mission, Rajavi added, “What happened to Behnam Mahjoubi makes it imperative to send an international fact-finding mission to Iran to visit the prisons, political prisoners, and the detained protesters.”

Thirty Executions in 30 Days

“The religious fascism ruling Iran is engulfed in crises and will not remain in power even for a day without repression, torture, and execution. At least 30 prisoners, including three women, were executed in different Iranian cities in the past 30 days alone. Many prisoners are executed secretly,” the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported on February 21.

On February 17, 2021, alone, at least 17 prisoners were hanged en masse in Gohardasht Prison, including female inmate Zahra Esmaili, a mother of two, according to a social media activist.

Esmaili suffered a heart attack and died before reaching the gallows. Nevertheless, the regime henchmen hanged her lifeless body. Zahra Esmaili was accused of killing her husband, Alireza Zamani, a director-general of the notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), because he intended to sexually assault his teenage daughter.

“Mehdi Ali Hosseini, a wrestler from Andimeshk, Ali Motiri, and Javid Dehghan Khald were hanged in Dezful, Sheiban, and Zahedan prisons, January 25, 28, and 30, 2021, respectively, on the charge of moharebeh (waging war against God),” NCRI added.

Maryam Rajavi also condemned the continuation of applying death sentences in Iran, calling on the international community to pressure Tehran to stop executions. “Engulfed in irremediable domestic and international crises, the mullahs’ criminal regime has resorted to the gallows. The regime cannot rule even for one day without torture and executions,” Rajavi tweeted, adding, “The clerical regime’s dossier of crimes must be referred to the UN Security Council and its leaders must face justice.”

Iran: Three executions in On February 13

Moreover, Iranian authorities executed at least three prisoners on one day at Birjand Prison in South Khorasan province, northeastern Iran, and Meshgin Shahr Prison in Ardabil province, northwestern. There are unconfirmed reports about the execution of five other death-row prisoners in Birjand Prison.

One of the executed prisoners was an Iranian Baluch Jamaleddin Barahouei, 40, from the Sefidabeh village, near Zabol city. He was also hanged without having a death sentence. Authorities had arrested him two years ago and sentenced him to 27 years in prison on drug-related charges. But on Thursday, they suddenly took him to the quarantine and hanged him two days later.

Furthermore, authorities hanged another Iranian Baluch Mohammad Barahouei, 28, from the city of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan province. He was a father of three little children. The State Security Forces (SSF) had detained him in May 2019.

The third executed prisoner was Bahavar Tannazi, 37, from Ardabil, the capital of Ardabil province. He was on death row for five years. Iranian officials have yet to announce this execution as of this report. Notably, Iranian authorities implement most death penalties silently to prevent a public backlash.

Iranian Officials Silently Execute Inmates

Iranian authorities hanged another prisoner at Nour Prison in the northern province of Mazandaran. His name was S.A., and he had been detained through a street clash. The Revolutionary Court sentenced him to the death penalty for murder. Then the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.

Human rights defenders also revealed that the regime had silently executed 41-year-old prisoner Taher Hamel Khoshkhou at Tabriz Prison in Eastern Azarbaijan province, northeastern Iran, on January 6. Authorities had arrested Taher in 2008. The court had initially sentenced him to 11 years in prison.

However, in 2014, the appeal court upgraded the sentence to the death penalty while he had spent six years in prison. Later, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, and he was hanged in January due to Tabriz Prison Warden Safi Louei’s insistence. He had been deprived of a last family visit before the implementation of the ruling.

Source » irannewsupdate

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