Execution of Imprisoned Protester Mohammad Qobadlou; Execution of Sunni Political Prisoner Farhad Salimi after 14 years in prison
Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Iranian political prisoners Farhad Salimi Mohammad Ghobadloo
NCRI logoKhamenei resorts to countless murders in fear of people’s uprising
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi: Khamenei’s efforts to quell the uprisings are doomed to fail. The martyrdom of these brave young men will only fuel the flames of uprising and resistance
This morning, on Tuesday, 23 January 2024, the henchmen of the clerical regime executed Mohammad Qobadlou, a 23-year-old imprisoned protester, in Qezel Hesar Prison on charges of killing a repressive agent. In another appalling incident within the same prison, they simultaneously carried out the hanging of Farhad Salimi, a Sunni political prisoner who had been incarcerated for 14 years. He was on a hunger strike at the time of his execution.
The news agency of the clerical regime’s judiciary reported that the verdict of Mohammad Qobadlou in the case of killing “a State Security Force officer and wounding another five agents in the course of unrests last year, was carried out after being upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.” (Mizan news agency, 23 January 2024)
The criminal agents of the SSF Special Unit attacked and brutalized the family and people who had gathered outside Qezel Hesar Prison after the hanging of Mohammad Qobadlou. They made several arrests.
Farhad Salimi and six other Sunni citizens were arrested in December 2009 and tortured in the detention center of the Department of Intelligence of Urmia to forcibly extract false confessions from them.
They were sentenced to death once in February 2016, by the notorious judge, Mohammad Moghiseh, and another time by another infamous judge, Abolqasem Salavati, on charges of “acting against national security,” disseminating “propaganda against the state,” and “Corruption on Earth.” The clerical regime’s Supreme Court eventually upheld their sentences in 2019.
Farhad Salimi and his six co-defendants were accused of killing Khamenei’s Friday prayer leader in the Rashedin Caliphate Mosque in Mahabad during the uprising in December 2009. Davoud Abdollahi, Ayoub Karimi, and Qassem Abesteh were executed in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on 12 January 2024, 29 November 2023, and 5 November 2023, respectively. Another three co-defendants, Anwar Khezri, Khosrow Besharat, and Kamran Sheikheh, are lingering in Qezel Hesar on death row.
The NCRI President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi said, “The clerical regime has set a new record in savagery and crime by these executions. Undoubtedly, the courageous youth of Iran will not let this medieval regime’s actions go unanswered. The countless instances of bloodshed reveal Khamenei’s apprehension about the eruption of the Iranian people’s fury, and his futile attempts to quell uprisings. The martyrdom of these brave young men will only fuel the flames of uprising and resistance.”
Mrs. Rajavi appealed to the United Nations and the European Union to take immediate action to halt the mullahs’ killing machine and save the lives of thousands of prisoners on death row, particularly political prisoners, imprisoned protesters, and three other defendants in Farhad’s case. At least 360 prisoners have been executed since 7 October, since the start of the war sponsored primarily by the clerical regime. Silence and inaction will only embolden the mullahs’ regime to escalate its crimes within Iran and abroad.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
23 January 2024