More violence against the discontent of the people of Iran with the Islamic theocracy

There are many symptoms of social discontent that should make the Iranian regime uncomfortable: the increase in popular demonstrations against it owing to the rise in the price of petrol; and the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Tehran government, which is one of the countries with the most deaths and infections in the area and has caused the Iranian people to demonstrate day after day.

The Islamic Republic is experiencing a deep economic crisis, which has been aggravated by the sanctions imposed by Donald Trump's government. Just a few weeks ago the United States' sanctions came into force on over two dozen people and entities involved in Iran's nuclear, missile and conventional weapons programmes, according to a senior US official.

This decision was taken unilaterally by the Trump Administration and conflicts with the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 by the United Nations and from which Trump withdrew in 2018.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry claimed that Washington "is not only flouting all the principles of international law and the UN Charter, but is also openly challenging the international community through intimidation".

Iranian President Hassan Rohani warned that "if the United States wants to continue its harassment and take a practical step - to reinstate sanctions - it will be met with a firm response from Iran".

Since the beginning of the year, the value of the Iranian rial has fallen to an all-time low, and this has prompted Iranians to take to the streets in protest at the regime's ineptitude.

Added to all this is the rejection of the executions and arrests of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and people who took part in the demonstrations in 2018 against the economic difficulties.

This is the case of the death and torture of the Afkari sportsman. Afkari, 27 years old, was arrested together with his two brothers in August 2018 during demonstrations in the southern city of Shiraz. The family was protesting, together with thousands of demonstrators, against the bad economic situation in Iran and the devaluation of the national currency. The Iranian authorities confirmed the execution of the sportsman in early September.

The countries that continue to use the death penalty within their courts are the United States, Russia, Bahrain, North Korea, Belarus, the Caribbean states, Equatorial Guinea, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen, Bangladesh, Botswana and Saudi Arabia.

Many of these states have not executed a death penalty order for a long time. According to data from Amnesty International, in 2019 most executions reported took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt, in that order.

In total, more than 7,000 people have been arrested since the demonstrations, which were repeated in 2019. 30 demonstrators have received death sentences, according to the Iranian democracy activists Shrien Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, and Abbas Milani on the US website The Hill.

"The authorities cracked down hard on the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Security forces illegitimately used lethal means to quell the protests, killing hundreds of people and arbitrarily arresting thousands of demonstrators. The authorities arbitrarily detained more than 200 human rights defenders and in many cases imposed prison sentences and floggings," Amnesty International said in its annual report on the situation in the Islamic Republic.

The execution of the athlete was accompanied by the arrest of human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes on charges of "disturbing public order and colluding with the system" for her work defending women's rights. Amnesty called the sentence "an outrageous injustice. Earlier this year, Nasrin Sotoudeh began a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment of political prisoners.

Iranian human rights, political and exile groups are denouncing systematic human rights abuses, executions and torture by the Hassan Rohani government and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as part of their political strategy against dissidents: more violence and executions.