{"id":44059,"date":"2020-10-12T07:27:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T07:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44059"},"modified":"2020-10-12T07:27:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T07:27:09","slug":"arrests-torture-and-executions-irans-autumn-of-discontent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44059","title":{"rendered":"Arrests, torture and executions: Iran\u2019s autumn of discontent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nLONDON:\u00a0In the face of the Middle East\u2019s worst COVID-19 outbreak and economic ruin, Iran\u2019s violent crackdown and persecution of anti-government activists is an attempt to deter future protests, analysts say. Yet, in their view, the regime\u2019s disregard for human rights may well be a sign of weakness rather than strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe world was appalled in September at the cruel hanging of Navid Afkari, an Iranian wrestling champion. He sought a fair trial until the end, but was deprived of legal representation and detained alongside his two brothers. The brutal mistreatment meted out to Afkari and his sudden execution were intended to send a clear message to normal Iranians, said Mansoureh Mills, Iran researcher at Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Iranian authorities are flexing their muscles,\u201d he told Arab News. \u201cAt a time when the general mood among Iranians is shifting away from the death penalty and the world is looking in horror at Iran\u2019s increasing use of it against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups, the Iranian authorities are using executions, like that of Navid Afkari, as a tool of political control and oppression to instill fear among the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Protesters demonstrate outside the Iranian embassy in London on Sept. 12, 2020 against the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari in Iran. (Photo by Justin Tallis \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nMore than 7,000 people were arrested during the 2019 demonstrations alone and at least 30 other protesters have already received death sentences, wrote Iranian democracy activists Shirin Ebadi, Abbas Milani and Hamid Moghadam in a recent opinion piece, titled \u201cIran deserves a red card for its human rights abuses,\u201d for US news website The Hill.<\/p>\n

\nA report released by the rights group Amnesty International in September detailed the catalog of horrors that detained protesters face in Iranian prisons. Prisoners spared the death penalty were regularly subjected to torture, including \u201cbeatings, floggings, electric shocks, stress positions and sexual violence,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\nTehran\u2019s treatment of women\u2019s rights campaigners has been particularly harsh. For example, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced 57-year-old Nasrin Sotoudeh, a leading Iranian human rights lawyer, to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes on charges of \u201cdisrupting public order and colluding against the system\u201d for her work defending the rights of women. Amnesty has called the sentence an \u201coutrageous injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Supporters of Amnesty International campaign for the release of Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh by celebrating a birthday party in front of the Iranian embassy in The Hague on May 31, 2019. (AFP)
\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nSince 2009, the regime has imprisoned or attempted to prosecute at least 60 lawyers for defending political prisoners, according to Human Rights Watch. The regime is also accused of trumping up spy charges against foreign visitors to effectively hold them hostage, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national jailed in 2016, and British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who has been detained since 2018.<\/p>\n

\nAs COVID-19 swept through Iran\u2019s overcrowded jails earlier this year, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was temporarily released from the notorious Evin prison and placed under effective house arrest with her parents in Tehran, where she awaits fresh charges. Moore-Gilbert was recently moved from Evin to Qarchak, which is widely regarded as the worst women\u2019s prison in Iran, known for its extrajudicial killings, torture and other rights violations.<\/p>\n

\nEven the families of dissidents outside Iran are unsafe. Masih Alinejad, an outspoken US-based critic of the Islamic Republic, has said her family inside Iran has been regularly targeted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Her brother was imprisoned and tortured, while her mother has faced a pattern of harassment. At one point, her mother \u201cthreatened to pour gasoline on herself and set herself on fire\u201d during a confrontation with IRGC officers, Alinejad said.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nThis mistreatment of protesters, Mills said, can be directly linked to the declining economic and political control that Tehran exerts over the population.<\/p>\n

\nSince the beginning of 2020, the value of the Iranian rial has plummeted to new lows each passing month. In October, it dropped to its lowest-ever value. Worse yet for the regime, the US is moving forward with the re-imposition of \u201csnapback\u201d sanctions lifted as part of the nuclear deal. Meanwhile, with pressure mounting on European countries to take a harder line against Iran, one of the regime\u2019s few remaining economic lifelines could soon vanish.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhenever the political and economic situation in the country declines, the Iranian authorities clamp down even further on the public and erode human rights even more \u2014 Tehran has shown it will do everything in its power to crush protests and silence dissent,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n

\nIran\u2019s spiraling economic crisis could herald yet more repression and violence by Tehran in an attempt to control the volatile domestic situation, Mills added. But far from dampening the appetite of ordinary Iranians for regime change, he believes widespread repression and the flippant use of execution have, and will continue to, enrage the population.<\/p>\n

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Journalist and author Masih Alinejad speaks onstage during the WICT Leadership Conference at New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Oct. 16, 2018 in New York. (Getty Images\/AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cThe anger at Navid Afkari\u2019s execution among Iranians is palpable,\u201d he told Arab News. \u201cSince his death, graffiti has appeared in Iran\u2019s streets criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and calling for revenge for his killing, and people are urging protests against his execution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMills\u2019s prediction of unrest and anti-regime anger is echoed by Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian dissident group that views itself as Iran\u2019s government-in-waiting.<\/p>\n

\nSafavi says much like the protests of 2018 and November 2019, which were both triggered by economic grievances among the Iranian populace and morphed into anti-regime movements, the deteriorating economic and social foundations in Iran will catalyze further uprising.<\/p>\n

\nIn trying to prevent this, Safavi said, the regime is \u201ccaught between a rock and a hard place. While it needs to repress and execute to survive, it is fully cognizant of its fragile and vulnerable state, and is very worried about the massive social backlash of executions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. (Behrouz Mehri \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe case of dissident campaigner Shahla Jahanbin epitomizes the regime\u2019s problem. She penned a letter to\u00a0Khamenei earlier this year imploring him to resign.<\/p>\n

\nIn response, Jahanbin was sentenced to nearly four years in jail and forced to return to prison just months after receiving back surgery. But her cruel treatment at the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Court has failed to suppress the anger of Iran\u2019s youth against the regime \u2014 it only fuels it, Safavi said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe regime is terrified of the eruption of another uprising,\u201d he added. But Tehran\u2019s nightmare scenario may already be playing out. Footage obtained by Arab News shows unidentified individuals setting fire to the entrance of the Shiraz court where Afkari was handed his death sentence. A later video also shows an explosive device detonating in the heavily fortified entrance to Lorestan province\u2019s central prison administration office.<\/p>\n

\nBoth attacks took place at night and caused only material damage, but were met with an immediate deployment of security forces. Safavi said this demonstrates the fear of the regime and its vulnerability in the face of the Iranian public.<\/p>\n

\nThe only way out of the cycle of repression, public backlash and more repression, according to Bob Blackman, a UK Conservative Party MP, is for the international community to send a clear message to Iran that \u201cwe are not going to put up with their human rights abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHe told Arab News that European countries must abandon their attempts to appease Iran by rescuing the nuclear deal, and instead follow in the US administration\u2019s footsteps with new sanctions against the regime. \u201cWe have to be strong and firm about this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nBlackman also noted the uncertainty and potential unrest caused by Iran\u2019s sky-high coronavirus death toll \u2014 over 20,000 by official accounts, though many suspect the true figure may be far higher. He said concerns over personal safety amid the pandemic may be discouraging Iranians from taking to the streets against the government, but this reluctance to gather in protest will not last forever.<\/p>\n

\nThe issue in Iran, Blackman said, is increasingly a question of how much abuse normal Iranians are willing to put up with in their daily lives, and what they will resort to when it becomes too much to bear.<\/p>\n

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Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with President Hassan Rouhani. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cWhat we do know is that the Shah (Iran\u2019s pre-revolutionary ruler) was deposed after a long campaign of civil disobedience \u2014 it took a long time,\u201d Blackman added.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe anti-regime protests in Iran that continue to take place reflect the genuine sentiments of the Iranian people. These protests are a continuation of those beginning in November and proceeding through December, reforming again and again in the face of harsh repression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe consensus among rights groups, politicians and Iranians abroad is that Tehran\u2019s executions and violent repression create a vicious cycle of more unrest, more human rights abuses, and therefore, more unrest.<\/p>\n

\nBlackman said this cycle will continue until the international community abandons its strategy of appeasement and accepts the reality of the situation: The Islamic Republic cannot be trusted and will not change.<\/p>\n

\nThe general consensus among Iran analysts is that human rights abuses, executions and instability will continue until\u00a0Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and the IRGC\u2019s grip on Iran is replaced by a representative and democratically elected government.<\/p>\n

\n______________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\n\u2022 Twitter: @CHamillStewart<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON:\u00a0In the face of the Middle East\u2019s worst COVID-19 outbreak and economic ruin, Iran\u2019s violent crackdown and persecution of anti-government activists is an attempt to deter future protests, analysts say. Yet, in their view, the regime\u2019s disregard for human rights may well be a sign of weakness rather than strength.\u00a0 The world was appalled in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}