Iran executed protestor ‘denied burial in Muslim cemetery’

Iranian authorities have denied a man executed for murdering a government agent and taking part in last year’s anti-government protests a burial in a Muslim cemetery, and his parents were arrested during his funeral, reports the opposition outlet, Iran International.

According sources cited by BBC Persian, Milad Zohrevand, 21, was “secretly executed” on Thursday in the western city of Hamadan. He was accused of being among a group of five masked men who fatally shot Ali Nazari, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence service, amid protests following the death of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Hengaw, a human rights organisation focusing on the Iranian Kurdish community, said in a statement last week that “the execution was conducted in secrecy, without prior notification or a final meeting with the family.”

“Hengaw strongly condemns the secret execution, emphasising that it not only violates the right to life but also egregiously infringes upon the human rights of the detainee and his family,” it said.

“The lack of prior notification and the denial of an opportunity for a final farewell demonstrate a blatant disregard for humanitarian principles and fundamental human rights.”

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Citing Hengaw, Iran International reported that “regime authorities refused permission for his body to be transferred to the Muslim cemetery of Malayer and, after his burial in the Armenian cemetery of Hamadan, they poured concrete over his grave.”

Yesterday, it was reported that Afsaneh Zohrevand, Milad’s mother, was detained during her son’s funeral on charges of “disturbing the peace,” while his father, Rouhollah, was said to have been arrested after the burial ceremony and transferred to prison. As of now, the reasons for his arrest and his current status have not been disclosed.

Amnesty International says that, between September and December 2022, Iranian “security forces unleashed a brutal militarised crackdown” which led to the unlawful killing of hundreds of protestors and bystanders, with over half belonging to the Baluch and Kurdish ethnic minorities.

On the one year anniversary of Amini’s death in September, an article in Iran’s PressTV described the protests as riots backed by the West to bring about a regime change, noting that “The flames of the riots were fanned with a misinformation campaign through run-of-the-mill satellite television channels in both English and Persian languages bankrolled by the US and its allies.”

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