The world can no longer ignore the crimes against humanity being committed in Iran. Last year over 1,000 executions took place in 86 of the mullahs’ medieval prisons. Those hanged included 34 women and 7 juvenile offenders, executed after they turned 18. Among those executed were 119 Baluchis, highlighting the disproportionate targeting of this marginalized and oppressed ethnic group.
Barbarically, 4 of the hangings were carried out in public in an attempt to terrify the rebellious youth into placid submission. Public hangings are generally from a construction crane, an especially slow and agonizing execution method.The frenzy of executions, over 70% of which took place since the so called ‘moderate’ president Masoud Pezeshkian took office in August, are testimony to the theocratic regime’s fear of imminent overthrow.
The psychotic and ageing Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has watched the gradual unravelling of his warmongering stranglehold in the region, with the decapitation of his proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The sudden and unexpected fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Islamic Republic’s greatest ally, has sounded the death knell for the mullahs’ regime. Now, Khamenei can only shudder in anticipation of the arrival of President Donald Trump, with his maximum pressure sanctions campaign and his unwavering antipathy to the Iranian regime’s sponsorship of international terrorism.
Ever since the mullahs hijacked the popular revolution that ousted the dictatorship of the Shah in 1979, they have resorted to bouts of brutal repression at times of crisis to subdue the populace. But their atrocities only strengthen the determination of the Iranian youth to overthrow the fascist tyranny. The regime must be ostracised by the international community and any dealings with it should be conditional on an end to executions and torture. Its leaders must be brought to justice. There can no longer be a business-as-usual approach by Western appeasers. Too much innocent blood is being spilled as Khamenei sets new records for crimes and executions in a bid to delay his inevitable downfall.