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Editor’s Note: Frida Gitis (@Frida Gitis) is a former CNN producer and correspondent and world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor for CNN, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review. Her views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more of her opinion on CNN.
CNN
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“Dad, my sentence is the death penalty,” Mohammad Mehdi Kalami told his father by phone from prison last month, after the 21-year-old karate champion was executed by the Iranian regime last Saturday. Karami, an Iranian Kurd, was hanged on the same day as Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, a 20-year-old volunteer children’s coach. All 16 people charged in the case have denied the charges.
Their deaths add to the rising number of young protesters killed since Iranians took to the streets almost four months ago in a female-led demonstration sparked by the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini. Amini, also an Iranian Kurd, was detained by moral policy for improperly wearing the hijab, a Muslim veil that Iran’s clerical rulers require all women to wear. died in police custody.
number of deaths and relentless heartbreak, will almost certainly continue. That is because the regime’s most powerful domestic weapon, its ability to kill protesters to frighten and intimidate them, is not producing the intended results. Despite the rising death toll, Iranians, tired of repression, are not giving up.
Iran’s young protesters are displaying an almost immeasurable level of courage. Azadi, Azadi! – “Freedom!” in Persian.
Those watching in awe from outside Iran will have to make other decisions. How do they respond when the regime kills young people?
A Norway-based Iranian human rights group has warned of a “serious risk of mass executions of protesters”. Already, security forces have estimated that he has killed 481 people, including 64 of his children, and at this point he believes 109 protesters face execution.
The execution took place after demonstrators were indicted and tortured into confessing to crimes they did not commit, Karami told his father by phone that day. He states that there is no such thing as a formal procedure.
Hours after the execution, two other young protesters sentenced to death, Mohammed Broghani, 19, and Mohammed Ghobadlu, 22, were moved from cell to cell, raising fears that their execution was imminent. rice field.their supporters spent the night gathering around the prison, hoping to stop possible execution. They are still alive as of this writing.
The first known person to be executed in connection with the protests was 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari in early December.Ah viral video It is excruciating that his mother is said to have received the news of his death.
Days later, Iran hanged 23-year-old Majidreza Ranabad from a construction crane in a public square in the city of Mashhad. He was convicted of “enmity against God” and, in another spectacle trial, was found guilty of stabbing two basijs. A little more than three weeks after his arrest, he was executed in front of a crowd and his body was suspended from a cable in a photo posted by the regime. His court-assigned attorney did not offer a defense.
Few people expected the demonstrations to last this long. The risks seemed to outweigh the chances of success. “To be honest, I wrote in October that the protests were exciting, but also terrifying to watch.” We knew the regime would respond with brutality.
Beatings, shootings and executions have not ended the protests.On the contrary, recent executions rekindled protest at University. Young people seem determined to risk everything for another chance at life. End of Priesthood It seems unstoppable.
For the rest of the world, there is even more moral clarity on the issue of supporting protesters now that Iran has begun providing Russia with the weapons it is using to destroy Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. .
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky told the US Congress, along with Iran, that: [its] Genocidal policies…one terrorist found the other. Iran claims it sold only Russian drones before the war.
stern condemnation The number of Iranian executions by the West has almost immediately spiked, with protesters taking to the streets in several world capitals. That solidarity is important, but it is not enough. The world can do more.
Germany, one of Tehran’s major trading partners, recently announced it would suspend export credits and investment guarantees to Iranian trade. I had already declared that the situation would not allow it.”Business as usual with Iran” Responsible governments around the world must curtail trade and quietly persuade other major trading partners such as the United Arab Emirates, India and Turkey to review their trade ties.
It is also very clear that efforts to revive the 2015 Nuclear Agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) need to be declared finished. Biden has already confirmed the deal.”dead”, he said, despite refusing to make his admission official. Even if it were possible, it would bring millions of dollars to a regime that not only kills its own people and sows unrest in the region, but also aids in the destruction of other countries with which it has allies. . with Russia.
The European Union should immediately respond to the Dutch proposal to label the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC and terrorist organizations, as the United States has already done. Tehran denies this labeling, but there is ample evidence of IRGC activity, intervening in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.
Diplomatically, the Western powers, led by the United States, need to draw attention to Iran’s misdeeds. Take the case to the top diplomatic forums. Russia will undoubtedly refuse to force a vote of condemnation on the UN Security Council, and probably China will too. Let’s see the tyrants standing side by side.
And if Iran does not relent, it will target the visas of Iranians who enjoy traveling in the West. You should know that your ability to study at a European university may quickly disappear.
This is, of course, the fight of the Iranian people. it’s their country. their lives. But the rest of the world must do more than issue statements and express their disapproval. As long as the Iranian people are risking everything to fight for their freedom against a regime that has done so much damage in many places, they deserve more help than they have received.
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