Iran Denies Justice for Jewish Citizen; Immediate Execution Looms

The Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) reported that the Supreme Court of Iran has rejected a retrial request for Arvin Ghahremani, an Iranian Jewish citizen.

Ghahremani, at the age of 18, was sentenced to death for his alleged role in a fatal street brawl. 

According to the IHRNGO, the decision places Ghahremani at immediate risk of execution, underscoring a judicial process marred by oversight and lack of fair representation.

Relatives of Ghahremani have voiced concerns that critical elements of his defense were ignored during the trial. These include his efforts to aid the injured party by attempting to transport him to a hospital and his subsequentefforts to save the man's life—details absent from the court documents. The family insists that he was attacked and only acted in self-defense, disarming the man who had assaulted him with a knife.

The Norway-based rights group is calling for a halt to Ghahremani’s impending execution and a transparent, thorough review of his case and others similarly jeopardized. The IHRNGO’s plea highlights a trend in Iran’s judicial proceedings, where the right to a fair trial is often supplanted by swift punishment.

On a broader scale, the IHRNGO's latest findings reveal that within the last month alone, at least 103 people were executed in Iranian prisons, marking an acceleration in the use of capital punishment. Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO, criticized the global community for its silence on such executions, saying, "The international community's silence... is unacceptable and must end."

Amnesty International has also weighed in, reporting 853 executions in Iran in 2023, the highest in eight years.