Execution is a sentence that is issued and carried out within the framework of a legal process. In the Islamic Republic, however, execution takes people’s lives by resorting to Islamic law. And in Sharia, we are talking about “murder”, not execution.
On Thursday, December 22, 2022, Mohsen Araki, Ayatollah, a member of the Council of Experts and the Supreme Council of the Hoza (seminary school for mullahs), one of whose jobs is to teach and interpret the rulings of the Sharia, explained the ruling for a “corrupter of the earth” (Mufsed fil-Arz), a “Muhareb” and a “Baghi”: “Baghi’s sentence is murder even if he does not kill anyone, even if he does not directly commit a crime.” Ayatollah explicitly uses the term “murder” in this regard, not execution.
The order to kill MohammadMehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini was carried out by hanging on today’s dawn, Saturday, January 7, according to Mizan News Agency.
MohammadMehdi Karami, a 22-year-old athlete and medalist in karate with several titles, and Mohammad Hosseini, a young man who went to Karaj Cemetery (Behesht-e-Sakineh) on Thursday, November 3, to lay flowers on the graves of his parents, two days after the 40th-day ceremony of Hadis Najafi, which turned into violence and bloodshed by the regime’s armed thugs, were arrested along with a number of others on November 5.
The Judiciary, in its initial reports, announced the arrest of 11 people regarding the bloody suppression of the 40th-day ceremony of Hadis Najafi.
On Saturday, November 12, a week after mass arbitrary arrests, 15 people were indicted in this case. Accusations: “corruption on earth (Efsad-fil-Arz), collusion against the security of the country, publishing calls against the regime in cyberspace and…”
In less than 3 weeks after the indictment, on Wednesday, November 30, the first court session was held. The case still had 15 defendants. The defendants were brought before the turbaned judge, Musa Asef al-Hosseini, in Branch 1 of the Alborz Revolutionary Court without their chosen lawyer.
The court show was staged on 3 days: Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday – November 30, December 1, December 3.
On the third day of this show, another person was added to the defendants. Name: Hossein Mohammadi. Out of these 16 people, a “murder order” was issued for five people, one day after the end of the show: MohammadMehdi Karami, Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, Hamid Qarehhasanlou, Reza Aria, Hossein Mohammadi.
Four days ago, on Tuesday, January 3, the Supreme Court confirmed the “killing order”.
The state-murder was carried out this morning.
MohammadMehdi Karami had gone on a hunger strike in Karaj Central Prison since Wednesday, January 4, in protest to prohibition to have his chosen lawyer!. On the same day, Mohammad Aghasi, a lawyer, announced that “MohammedMehdi Karami did not have a choice of lawyer in any of the proceedings”.
MohammadMehdi was not even given “permission to visit his family for the last time”.
Mohammad Hosseini did not have a choice of lawyer when his murder was ordered in the Revolutionary Court:
And when his lawyer managed to sign the power of attorney, during the first meeting, Muhammad’s narration was “all tears”:
Tuesday, January 3, on the same day that, according to Tasnim’s report, the Supreme Court approved the order to kill MohammadMehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, Ali Sharifzadeh-Ardakani, the chosen lawyer of Mohammad Hosseini, announced that he had filed a retrial request for his client and “according to Article 478 of the Criminal Procedure Law, the execution of the sentence is stopped.”
But the murder was not stopped.
On what basis the elected lawyer of Mohammad Hosseini, on the very day when the Supreme Court announced the confirmation of his client’s murder, writes about “stopping the execution of the sentence” and sows false hope in the public, is another mystery.
Translation of this post by Sahar.