Iran: Man At Risk Of Protest-Related Execution

According to information received by Amnesty International, Mojahed Kourkouri was not at the protests taking place in Izeh on 16 November 2022. Relatives of Kian Pirfalak, the nine-year-old child fatally shot by security officials that day, have also repeatedly stated publicly that Mojahed Kourkouri was not involved in in the killing of their loved-one; and have repeatedly and publicly attributed responsibility to Iran’s security forces. 

Amnesty International previously documented how plainclothes security officials fatally shot Kian Pirfalak with live ammunition during protests in Izeh, Khuzestan province, on 16 November 2022. Security forces fired toward the car in which Kian Pirfalak was travelling with his family. During Kian Pirfalak’s funeral service on 18 November 2022, his mother, Mahmonir (Zeinab) Molaierad, publicly described the details of the fatal incident and said: “Hear it from me about how the shooting happened so they [the authorities] can't say it was by ‘terrorists’, because they are lying.” Mahmonir Molaierad described that they were on their way to their house in Izeh when they reached an intersection where a large numbers of riot police and plainclothes officials were stationed. She said an official ordered them to stop and turn around after they passed the security forces. Kian Pirfalak’s father, who was driving, heeded the order, but suddenly several plainclothes officials opened fire at the car. As a result, Kian Pirfalak sustained fatal gunshot wounds and his father was severely injured. Mahmonir Molaierad said that amid the shootings, she opened the front passenger’s car door, loudly alerted the officials that her children were in the car and asked them to stop. Three of the plainclothes officials responsible for the shootings then walked to the family, removed Kian Pirfalak’s wounded body from the car and took him into a nearby building. Mahmonir Molaierad said, “I don’t know why [the officials shot at us] …They bombarded the car with bullets…I told the kids to hide under the seats. My younger child hid under the car’s dashboard, but Kian was chubby and didn’t go under the seat.” The death of Kian Pirfalak sparked an outpouring of rage and solidarity both in Iran and globally, particularly after a video went viral that showed him opening a school presentation with the words “in name of a God of Rainbow” and then testing a boat made up of ice cream sticks. The same evening Kian Pirfalak was fatally shot, state officials including Valiollah Hayati, the Deputy Governor of Khuzestan Province for Law Enforcement and Security Affairs, claimed that “terrorist agents” were responsible for the incident. After Mojajed Kourkouri was named in Iranian state media as having been arrested in relation to Kian Pirfalak’s killing in late December 2022, the family of Kian Pirfalak publicly denied his involvement. Amnesty International has documented a pattern of the Iranian authorities systematically covering-up and concealing their crimes and denying responsibility for the unlawful killings of children perpetuated by its security forces. They instead propagated narratives claiming that children were killed by “terrorists” or “rioters” or that their deaths were not connected to protests, but rather a result of suicides or accidents.  

According to Amnesty International’s investigations, on 16 November 2022, in addition to Kian Pirfalak, security forces also fatally shot and killed with live ammunition at least  three other children: Sepehr Maghsoudi and Artin Rahmani in Izeh, and Danial Pabandi in Saqqez, Kurdistan province.  

In late April 2023, Mojahed Kourkouri’s independently chosen lawyer learned that he was being held in Sheiban prison in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, and was permitted to very briefly visit him. According to information received by Amnesty International, Mojahed Kourkouri has not been permitted family visits since his arrest.

Since late April 2023, the Iranian authorities have embarked on an alarming execution spree of scores of people, intensifying their use the death penalty as a tool of repression in an attempt to instil fear into the population and crush ongoing acts of resistance against the authorities and establishment. To date, Iranian authorities have arbitrarily executed seven people in relation to the popular uprising, including five individuals in 2023.