Denmark, Belgium Summoning Iran Envoys Over Execution Of Protesters

With Radan's track record as the heavy-handed former police chief of Greater Tehran, Kordestan and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces the appointment was immediately questioned by social media and foreign-based Persian media.

Most of Radan's ill reputation dates back to his role as police chief during the post-election unrest in 2009 and the performance of his men at the Kahrizak detention center where several young protesters including children of some state officials were killed as a result of police brutality. He was interrogated for long hours for the casualty toll of the post-election unrest.

Like many other intelligence and police officials, Radan is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and in essence an IRGC officer.

Radan's men were also seen in police vehicles running over the protesters in the streets of Tehran on several occasions in 2009 and 2010. There is also a famous audio recording posted on social media in which Radan is ordering his men in Tehran to shoot anyone they can among protesters.

Clearly his ruthless treatment of demonstrators and his violent enforcement of the compulsory hijab are among the reasons why Khamenei decided to bring him back from his comfort zone or possibly his exile at the police's Strategic Studies Center to the troubled and turbulent streets of Iran.

Radan was sanctioned for his human rights violations by the United States as early as 2010 and has been blacklisted by the European Union.

The right man for Khamenei

During the past month the press speculated that Khamenei was unhappy with former police chief Hossein Ashtari's performance in quashing anti-regime protests. Although Khamenei said that Ashtari left his post at the end of his term of office, the press revealed that he had still more than two years to serve.

According to Etemad Online, Radan's hard-line views about security make him the right man to serve alongside a consolidated conservative government. He has been known for his ultraconservative positions about hijab and security since the time he joined the IRGC as a young man. He served as the Police Chief of Kordestan, a challenging region, from 1997 to 2000. Then he worked until 2004 as the police chief of Sistan-Baluchistan, another difficult area with a porous border, poverty and an oppressed Sunni population. He was transferred to Tehran in 2005 as the police chief of Greater Tehran and served until 2009.

He was one of the pioneers of enforcing a religious dress code through the ‘morality police’ where he expressed strict opposition to men wearing ties and women wearing boots and tight manteaus. President Ebrahim Raisi referred to this in his congratulatory message to Radan's. IRGC-linked Javan newspaper also praised Radan for tackling the hijab issue in the past years.

Radan has said that his "success" in that role was due to targeting the hijab issue right at clothing production centers where "the enemies were silently attacking religious values." He shut down many barber shops in Tehran for introducing new hair styles for the youth. Nonetheless, his strongest point, as far as Khamenei was concerned, was his violent crackdown on the 2009 protests. An experience that could come handy in the turbulent period of 2022 and 2023.

A man of no apologies

Radan says that "success" was the outcome of the police's close cooperation with Basij and the Intelligence Ministry, Rouydad24 reported. The two organizations provided the plainclothes forces who would recognize no barrier whatsoever in violently cracking down on protests.

Iranian media have said that Radan has come back to the forefront of tackling the protests with more power than before. Many Iranians still remember him in a controversial interview on state television in which he dismissed all the criticisms about his performance and insisted that "I am absolutely serious about security and hijab. People know what is right and what is not, and we know what to do if we want to take people with us and they refuse to come with us."

However, what happened to Mahsa Zhina Amini in police custody in mid-September showed that nothing is yet clear about what the police may and may not do. Some say former police chief Ashtari was removed from his post because he could not convince anyone, including Khamenei, that his plainclothes agents could stop the protests, although they beat and shot protesters at point blank range, and are responsible for hundreds of deaths since September.

What Radan will probably begin to understand during the next months is that today's protesters are extremely different from those in 2009. Instead of turning the other cheek they might slap back his men in the face.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Washington condemns the Islamic Republic’s “sham trials and execution of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini in the strongest terms,” noting that “These executions are a key component of the regime's effort to suppress protests.”

Price also added that “We continue to work with partners to pursue accountability for Iran’s brutal crackdown.” His remarks echoed a similar one by US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley who said, “Appalled by the regime’s execution of two more young Iranians after sham trials. These executions must stop. We and others across the globe will continue to hold Iran’s leadership accountable.”

Representative Claudia Tenney (R-NY) also condemned the Iranian regime’s brutal and unlawful execution of two innocent young men, saying it “should be a final straw for anyone who still thinks this regime is redeemable. The regime in Iran terrorizes its own people and the world. It should continue to face economic and diplomatic pressure.”

Member of the Belgian Parliament Darya Safai attended a protest rally outside the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Brussels in which she described the regime as the “occupiers of Iran.” She also tweeted about a mourning ceremony by friends of one of the hanged protesters, saying the regime would not let people say goodbye to the bodies of their loved ones. “As inhumane they killed him, they also buried him in an inhumane manner in complete silence,” she said. 

Denouncing the execution of protesters in Iran, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs told Iran International in a statement that Canberra calls on the Islamic Republic to immediately halt all executions and will continue to work through the multilateral system and with partners to hold Iran to account. Australia opposes death penalty... for all people."

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna described the executions as “appalling,” adding that France recalls its opposition to the death penalty, in all places and in all circumstances. French Senators have also tabled a resolution calling on the EU for ending nuclear negotiations with Iran, designating the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, as well as several other measures. 

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs also condemned the execution and emphasized its opposition to the death penalty everywhere and under any circumstances.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly also denounced the executions, saying that “two more lives lost to senseless executions from the Iranian regime.” Calling on the regime to put an end to such brutal and inhumane sentences, she expressed solidarity with Iranians who have a right to their human rights.

Golriz Ghahraman, a member of New Zealand’s parliament with Iranian roots, said, “A generation of Iranians is being murdered to protect the power of a self-declared Grand Ayatollah and the stolen wealth of his cronies.”

She addressed Western leaders, saying, “This is a moment in history, Iranians will win, but right now you are not on the side of freedom.” 

The European Union in a statement Saturday condemned the execution of Karami and Hosseini and called the executions “yet another sign of the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of civilian demonstrations” and urged Iranian government to “strictly abide by their obligations enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” to which Iran is a party.

Two other protestors named Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard were executed in Tehran and Mashhad in December.

Following mass arrests of protestors in the last four months and hasty death sentences issued for 11 people in sham trials, human rights activists and some foreign officials have been calling for weeks to hold the Islamic Republic accountable.

Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani, Mohammad Hosseini's lawyer, published a photo of a request for retrial, saying the execution of his client was "unjust".

“Considering the call for appeal and submission of documents, including harassment of my client to extract a confession and documents regarding his mental illness, carrying out the sentence was unjust,” he added in a tweet.

Sharifzadeh said that a day after the verdict’s confirmation, he filed a request for retrial, but officials turned down his request.

Mohammad Aghasi, the lawyer of Mohammad-Mehdi Karami, also said in an interview that “They executed my client so quickly that they didn't even give him a chance to write a petition for retrial.”

Both lawyers were not allowed to defend their clients in court, as Iran’s judiciary only recognizes those attorneys that it selects and appoints to political cases.

Aghasi pointed out that the Supreme Court also failed, because the sentences should have been overturned when the defendants did not have a lawyer of their choice.

Based on the statements of the defendants and their lawyers these two protesters were tortured physically and mentally to extract confessions, a common practice by Islamic Republic officials.

Despite public anger over the executions, the judiciary continues to issue death sentences and exerts pressure on hundreds of imprisoned protesters and their families.

In a letter published by ISNA in Tehran on Sunday, the student unions called on the foreign ministry to take “the most serious action against the new insult supported by the Elysée against the people of Iran and Muslims of other countries.”

“Considering the history of Charlie Hebdo in insulting the sanctities of about 2 billion Muslims around the world, we expect the foreign ministry not to accept any excuses by the French government,” reads the letter.

The Iranian foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned France's envoy to Tehran to protest "insulting" cartoons depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published by Charlie Hebdo.

The magazine said the series was part of a competition it launched to support anti-regime demonstrations in Iran. France has said media in free and the government cannot interfere with what they publish.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the publication of the cartoons was an "insult to authority, sanctities, and religious and national values" of Iran and the Islamic Republic does not accept these insults.

Charlie Hebdo has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to several cartoons that it published controversially depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. In the 2015 attack, 12 people were killed.

Major General Hossein Salami said Sunday during an event to commemorate Soleimani’s death that “sooner or later we will avenge his assassination.”

He claimed that no one can create problems for the Islamic Republic establishment, and addressing the West he said, “stop your miscalculations.”

Soleimani was in charge of supporting and organizing militant proxy forces, including the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraq Shiite militia groups that were repeatedly attacking US forces in Iraq and eslewhere.

On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said retaliatory military attacks against US targets for the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020 are still viable options.

IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif was quoted by Iranian media as saying that “moves such as [the attack on] Ain al-Assad base [in Iraq] are still being considered and “will become operational in due time.”

Five days after Soleimani was killed by a US air strike on January 3, 2020, Iran fired ballistic missiles at the Iraqi base hosting US troops. No Americans were killed but reports at the time spoke of dozens of servicemen receiving concussion because of the strong explosions.

At the time, President Donald trump who ordered the killing said that Soleimani presented an imminent danger to US personnel and interests in the region.

Since then, the Islamic Republic has continued threatening revenge for Soleimani, and these threats were repeated during the third anniversary of his killing this week.