Iran: secret execution of women's rights protester Reza Rasaei condemned

Thirty-four-year-old Kurd executed at dawn with no prior notice given to him, his family or his lawyer

Rasaei is the tenth ‘Woman Life Freedom’ protester to be executed following a grossly unfair trial which relied on a ‘confession’ extracted under torture

‘This execution lays bare once again how Iran’s criminal justice system is rotten to the core’ - Diana Eltahawy 

Responding to reports that the Iranian authorities this morning arbitrarily executed Reza Rasaei - a 34-year-old member of the oppressed Kurdish and Yaresan ethnic and religious minorities - in connection to the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising of September-December 2022, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said:

“This execution lays bare once again how Iran’s criminal justice system is rotten to the core and highlights the Iranian authorities’ deadly resolve to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the population.

“It also dispels any illusions of human rights progress with a new president assuming power last week.

“The continuing arbitrary execution of protesters in the aftermath of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising illustrates yet again that without constitutional, legal and policy reforms, human rights violations and impunity will persist.

“It also underscores the need for states to initiate criminal investigations under the principle of universal jurisdiction against all those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law, including top Iranian officials.”

Executed at 5am with no prior warning

Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei was arbitrarily executed in secret at 5am (local Iran time) this morning in Dizel Abad prison on Kermanshah province. According to information provided to Amnesty by an informed source, the authorities did not give prior notice of the execution to Rasaei, his family or his lawyer. Within hours of informing his family of his execution the authorities cruelly forced his family to bury his body in an area far remote from his home and in the presence of the security forces.

Rasaei was sentenced to death on 7 October last year after a grossly unfair trial that relied on his forced “confessions” obtained under torture and other ill-treatment - including beatings, electric shocks, suffocation and sexual violence. Rasaei is the tenth person to be executed in relation to the “Woman Life Freedom” protests. In the aftermath of the protests, the Iranian authorities have intensified their use of the death penalty with at least 853 executions recorded last year. In 2024, they have continued executing people at alarming rates, as of 30 June carrying out at least 274 executions, according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran.