Rights Group Warns Of Iran’s Execution Threats Spreading To Europe

Iran International Newsroom
(From left) Revolutionary Gurad Commander Hossein Salami, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, President Ebrahim Raisi, and Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei during a religious ceremony on July 26, 2023
(From left) Revolutionary Gurad Commander Hossein Salami, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, President Ebrahim Raisi, and Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei during a religious ceremony on July 26, 2023

A human rights organization has voiced alarm over Iran’s threats to execute European citizens over Quran burning.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), said Wednesday that inaction by the international community has emboldened the Islamic Republic authorities to extend their execution spree beyond Iran’s borders.

His remarks came as a reaction to repeated insistence by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several other regime officials for the execution of the Sweden-based Iraqi immigrant Salwan Momika who burned pages from the Quran in front of the central mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha in June.

After obtaining a permit from a Swedish court and in front of approximately 200 onlookers Momika, tore up a copy of the Quran, wiped his shoes with the pages, put bacon on the book and set it on fire whilst another protester addressed the crowds with a megaphone. Momika repeated the desecration in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on July 20. The following day, in neighboring Denmark, members of the far-right nationalist group "Danske Patrioter (Danish Patriots)" burned a copy of the Quran in front of Iraq's Embassy in Copenhagen.

Amiry-Moghaddam referred to the hanging of two Iranians in May for insulting religious entities, saying that "Unfortunately, the lack of appropriate response from the international community regarding the execution of one person on the charge of adultery and two people on the charge of sacrilege has emboldened the leaders of the Islamic Republic to issue similar sentences and even threaten to execute European citizens."

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights

Iran's Supreme Leader called for the severest punishment for the perpetrators of the Stockholm Quran burning. Ali Mohammadi-Sirat, the Supreme Leader’s man in IRGC’s Quds (Qods) Force -- a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations -- repeated Khamenei’s demands and stressed that these men will not be safe wherever they are. Earlier this month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Commander Hossein Salami also threatened attacks against those responsible for the incident, saying that those who burn or desecrate the Quran will not enjoy security.

The regime’s judiciary claimed Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare' were running dozens of online anti-religion platforms dedicated to the hatred of Islam, the promotion of atheism and insults to sanctities, however, in earlier reports the charges were mainly related to one Telegram channel. Mizan, the judiciary’s news agency, also claimed they had burnt copies of the Quran, and they had confessed to their blasphemy. Their families and rights activists said the confessions were extracted under duress, which has proven to be the case in numerous confessions by the regime.

Amiry-Moghaddam added, “The international community should not tolerate the execution of human beings because of consensual sex or expression of opinion in the 21st century by the governments that have a seat in the United Nations.” In April, a man was executed in the city of Karaj after being charged for having an affair with a married woman. In the Islamic Republic’s law, adulterers can be sentenced to lapidation -- or stoning to death -- if one or both people are married. Nowadays, the regime just hangs them.

According to a report released earlier in July, in the last 10 years, the regime has executed approximately 5,000 people, including dozens of children. The report by Dadgostar, the news agency of US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), highlighted the concerning trend of an average of 10 citizens being executed every week since May of the current year. Since the beginning of 2023, the regime has executed at least 307 people with 142 hangings in May alone, hitting a dark record even for the Islamic Republic.

Amiry-Moghaddam told Iran International in June, “The purpose of the Islamic Republic’s intensification of arbitrary executions is to spread fear in society to intimidate people against holding further protests, thus prolonging its rule,” adding that “if the international community doesn’t show a stronger reaction to the current wave of executions, hundreds more will fall victim to their killing machine in the coming months.” 

The Islamic Republic has intensified its killing trend in recent months, with at least seven protesters hanged since nationwide protests broke out in September 2022 following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The unrest posed the biggest internal challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.