On January 23, the Iranian regime hanged twenty-three-year old Mohammad Ghobadlou. He is the ninth known Iranian protester, arrested in connection with the massive anti-regime demonstrations of 2022, to be executed.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets for months after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for failing to wear her hijab properly. Peaceful protesters were met with brutal force. Five hundred people were killed by security forces during the demonstrations; thousands were arrested; and an unknown number remain in prison.
Ghobadlou, who allegedly struggled with mental illness, was accused of killing a police officer. After a trial that U.N. experts, Amnesty International, and other rights groups claim was grossly unfair, he received a sentence of death. His attorney said that the sentence had been stayed by Iran’s Supreme Court; yet the attorney was informed of the decision to execute Ghobadlou just hours before his client was killed.
At a press briefing, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel condemned “the Iranian regime’s use of the death penalty to punish people for what we believe to be just exercising their human rights.” He noted, “There have been ... widespread reports of torture, forced confessions, and restrictions on legal counsel. All of this, we believe, undermine any shred of credibility in the decisions handed down by Iranian courts.”
Since the Iranian regime’s violent suppression of nationwide protests following Mahsa Amini’s death, the United States has imposed more than a dozen rounds of sanctions in response, targeting Iranian officials, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Law Enforcement Forces, the head of Iran’s Prisons Organization, other individuals, and media outlets involved in censorship.
“The U.S.,” Principal Deputy Spokesperson Patel declared, “will continue to take actions to support the people of Iran in practical ways, both seen and unseen, in close coordination with our allies and partners in the region as well.
I will just note that when it comes to holding the Iranian regime accountable for its malign activities, including its repression of its own people, we will not hesitate to take action.”
