TEST Iran executes man over 2022 protest killings. Activists say he was framed

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Wednesday executed a man convicted in the fatal shootings of seven people during a 2022 protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, though human rights activists say he was tortured into confessing to killings likely carried out by security services.

The hanging of Abbas Kourkouri, also known as Mojahed Kourkouri, marks the first execution in nearly a year for someone arrested in the protests surrounding the death of Amini, who had been detained by police allegedly over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to their liking. Her death sparked months of demonstrations. Even today, some women refuse to wear their headscarves in public, openly defying a hijab law instituted by the country’s theocracy.

It’s unclear why authorities chose now to execute Kourkouri, 42, though tensions have been rising regionally over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, and the result of talks with the United States remains uncertain. Iran is one of the world’s top executioners and has been cracking down in other ways on society in the time since the Amini demonstrations.

Kourkouri “was sentenced to death without a fair trial and without access to a lawyer of his choice,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, which tallied an average of one execution in the Islamic Republic every six hours over the last eight months.

Shooting happened during Amini protests

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported at the time that on Nov. 16, 2022 two gunmen on motorcycles shot at protesters and security personnel gathered at the central market in the southwestern city of Izeh in the country’s restive, oil-rich Khuzestan province.

The assault killed seven people, including a 9-year-old boy, and wounded three police officers and two members of the Basij, the all-volunteer arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The death of the boy, named Kian Pirfalak, drew anger from Iranians, particularly after his family reportedly said it was security forces — not other gunmen — who opened fire.

Kourkouri was accused of being one of the gunmen.

He was charged with a spate of offenses, including “moharebeh” – an Islamic term meaning waging a battle against God. Authorities arrested him in December 2022 after reportedly shooting him in the leg. Activists say he was denied medical treatment beyond the bullet’s removal.

State media described Kourkouri as a drug dealer and “instigator” with a history of extremist beliefs. But rights advocates say he isn’t the violent person authorities have made him out to be and was himself an innocent protester.

“He was arrested during the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests, and the Islamic Republic authorities attempted to blame him” for the attack, Amiry-Moghaddam said. He added that the slain boy’s parents and uncle believed Iranian security forces were responsible.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which also monitors Iran, similarly dismissed the Iranian government’s claims.

“While authorities continue to describe the events of Nov. 16 in Izeh as a ‘terrorist attack,’ eyewitnesses and the families of victims have presented accounts that contradict the government’s narrative,” it said Wednesday. The group quoted Kian’s mother as saying, “On our way home, officers opened fire on our car.”

State media earlier broadcast videos of Kourkouri taking blame for the attack. But Amnesty International has said that authorities subjected him to solitary confinement and coerced his confessions, and that he wasn’t at the scene at the time of the killings.

One videotaped confession that had been aired on state TV showed Kourkouri in bed with his arm visibly bandaged and bloody, the rights group said. The footage resembled that of many other suspected coerced confessions broadcast in Iran.

Kourkouri’s death brings the tally of executions related to violence at the Amini protests up to 11. The last such execution came 10 months ago, after Reza Resaei, 34, was sentenced to death over the killing of a security officer. Rights groups also said his confession was forced.

Kourkouri’s execution “exposes yet again the Iranian authorities’ disdain for the right to life and their determination to use the death penalty as a tool to crush dissent and instill fear in Iran’s population,” said Hussein Baoumi of Amnesty International.

The United Nations-established Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran said Wednesday that proceedings against Kourkouri had been “marred by gross human rights violations.” It called on Iran to halt executions, including those against women’s rights activists.

Iran still faces dissent years later

On the streets of Iranian cities, it’s becoming increasingly common to see a woman pass by without a mandatory hijab, as the third anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini and the mass protests it sparked approaches this fall.

The government has targeted private businesses where women are seen without their headscarves. Surveillance cameras search for women uncovered in vehicles to fine and impound their cars, and authorities have gone as far as to use aerial drones to monitor women.

The country’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to curb the morality police’s harassment of women. But the country’s ultimate authority rests with its 86-year-old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei has in the past said “unveiling is both religiously forbidden and politically forbidden.”