The Political Fish

Planet Iran and the Azarmehr blog today reported more sad news coming out of the increasingly hostile and tyrannical Iranian regime. Arash Rahmanipour was a 19 year old student arrested during the uprising in Iran following the fraudulent elections this summer. He was later lumped into a group of pro-democracy demonstrators who stood in front of the Iranian kangaroo courts and were convicted.

Thursday, Rahmanipour was hanged by the despotic regime for his role in the Ashoura protests just a few months ago. Mind you, he was in jail at the time so the prosecutor concluded that he must have played a role in the massive Ashura protests from his cell.

Rahmanipour and the other man Mohammed Reza Ali Zamani said back in August that they were officially convicted of trying to “topple the Islamic establishment” and for belonging to armed opposition groups that were the enemies of Allah.

Arash Rahmanipours father told the Al-Jazeera news network that he was not informed of his sons hanging until after it had taken place.

He also stated he would not accept condolence, only congratulations for his son being martyred for the cause of freedom. Beautiful strength.

CNN also reported on the hangings and the inconsistency of the Iranian regime. It seems like an arbitrary process of executing its political prisoners is the rule of the day for the despots in Tehran.

UPDATE:

During the Friday prayers, Iranian hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmadd Jannati declared that more of the opposition protesters should be executed, to show the strength of the Islamic regime.

Speaking in a Friday prayer sermon, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the wave of street demonstrations sparked by the disputed June presidential election would not have lasted until now if protesters had been executed early on.

“Whatever we suffered was because of our weakness. How many did the judiciary execute on July 9?” he said, referring to one of the particularly large protest days.

“We showed weakness, so then we had Ashoura,” he said, referring to a major protest on Dec. 27. “If you show weakness now, the future will be worse … There is no room for Islamic mercy.”

Iran’s judiciary is stepping up death sentences as the leadership intensifies its campaign to eliminate the challenge from the pro-reform opposition movement. Authorities announced Thursday that nine people accused of involvement in protests have been sentenced to death — including five who allegedly had a role in the Dec. 27 protests, which saw a particularly violent clampdown.

Iran’s top prosecutor said a new group of protesters and others would soon be brought to trial.

The two men executed Thursday were arrested before the June 12 election on charges of belonging to an armed group aiming to topple the government. But authorities lumped them in with opposition activists arrested during the postelection crackdown.

In his sermon, aired live on state radio, Jannati thanked Iran’s judiciary chief, Sadeq Larijani, for Thursday’s executions and urged more, saying: “Stand up courageously for the sake of God, the same way you executed these two persons very quickly.”

© 2010, The Political Fish. All rights reserved.