Iranian Academics Demand Justice For Students Killed In Protests

Reports from Tehran say people held rallies in Narmak and Tehranpars neighborhoods in the east chanting slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

A group of others marched from Enghelab square in central Tehran towards City Theater Hall in Vali-e Asr avenue.

In the flashpoint neighborhood of Ekbatan in the west people once again chanted slogans against the clerics from their windows. More than 30 people have been arrested in the restive district of large, middle class apartment blocks.

There were also protests in other cities, including the religious city of Mashhad in the northeast, Sanandaj in western Iran and the port city of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf.

In Tehran a small team of protesters threw Molotov cocktails at a paramilitary Basij base, an act of defiance by young dissidents that has occurred numerous times in recent weeks.

Ashkan Khatibi, the famous Iranian actor, published a post on Instagram, saying he was summoned and interrogated by the security services.

He added that he has received multiple death threats on the phone for publishing posts in support of the popular protests.

Iranians in several European cities also held demonstrations to mark the hundredth day of the uprising, which is further fueled by executions and brutalities by the government.

In Copenhagen, protesters formed a human chain and chanted slogans to demand the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

Demonstrators in Istanbul also held a rally raising the pictures of those who were killed during the crackdown by the regime. They also chanted “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Khamenei”.

Iranians living in Frankfurt, Germany also held a protest rally in the center of the city demanding to designate the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.

A group of 43 members of the Social Democratic Party in the German Parliament this week demanded that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard – or IRGC --be designated as a terrorist group. The IRGC is the major force repressing dissidents and protests.

Lawmakers said, "A regime that defends its survival only by assassinating its own people has lost its legitimacy." Considering that other German parties such as Alliance 90/The Greens, and Free Democratic Party also seem to favor such a measure, it is possible that the IRGC will be blacklisted by Berlin and the European Union.

On Friday, Germany also suspended all export credits and investment guarantees for companies doing business with Iran as a measure against government’s harsh treatment of protesters.

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.

However, the country’s judiciary announced in a statement Saturday that it had accepted the appeal against the death sentence of another demonstrator, Saman Saidi Yasin.

Earlier, the Court had announced the appeals of both protesters have been accepted, but subsequently Mizan news agency affiliated with the judiciary said just the appeal of Saman Saidi Yasin was accepted and the ruling of Mohammad Qobadlou was confirmed.

Qobadlou is accused of killing a police officer and wounding five others during the protests.

Yasin, a Kurdish man who sings rap songs about inequality, oppression, and unemployment, was charged with attempting to kill security forces and singing anti-regime songs.

Nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic erupted in mid-September after the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini for wearing improper hijab.

Over 500 people have been killed by regime forces and over 18,000 were detained.

The clerical rulers hanged two protesters earlier this month: Mohsen Shekari, 23, was executed of blocking a street and injuring a member of the Basij militia force. Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, accused of stabbing to death two Basij members, was publicly hanged in the religious city of Mashhad.

According to Amnesty International at least 26 people are in danger of receiving death penalty in what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.

Hadi Nobahari, Director General of Sharif University Dean’s Office told Mehr News Agency Saturday that since the beginning of the student protests, about 300 complaints have been lodged with the university’s disciplinary committee, that “out of these cases, 33 preliminary rulings have been issued, but the appeal board rulings have not been issued yet.”

He said these students have received “written warnings or up to one or 2.5 years ofsuspensions from studying.”

During the nationwide protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old, Mahsa Amini in police custody and tension at universities, special law enforcement units as well as plainclothes security forces surrounded Sharif University for hours on October 2.

They entered the multistorey parking lot of the university with dozens of motorcycles and targeted protesting students who were sheltering in the parking lot with shotguns and paintballs.

Hundreds of students have also been arrested and many still remain in jail.

So far, the exact number of suspended and expelled students have not been announced, but in addition to Sharif University, there have been similar cases of punishments at other universities.

In Bahonar University of Kerman in central Iran 12 students were expelled and 80 suspended. Similar reports have been published about the universities of medical sciences in Kerman, Shiraz in the south, and Tabriz in the northwest.

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.