US President Donald Trump has urged the Iranian regime to cancel the execution of a 26-year-old protester, who is set to be put to death later today after receiving no trial, or face “very strong action.”
Erfan Soltani, who was arrested at his home on January 8, is set to be put to death without having received any trial, and human rights groups have complained that he is only to be allowed 10 minutes to say goodbye to his family ahead of his execution.
While an Iranian official told The New York Times that around 3,000 people have been killed in the unrest in recent weeks, Soltani is the first to be sentenced to execution. The NGO groups Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFD) reported that he will be killed by hanging.
Trump told CBS News on Tuesday that the United States would “take very strong action” if the regime begins executing anti-government protesters.
“We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen… When they start killing thousands of people. And now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not going to work out good,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Trump encouraged the protests, instructing the Iranian people to “Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
In response, Iran’s UN mission wrote, “US fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention.”
UN and human rights group concerned over planned execution of protester Erfan Soltani
Experts from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHR) stressed that “The use of lethal force may only be used as a last resort when strictly unavoidable to protect life, and must comply with the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and precaution.”
The experts warned the UN agency that if Soltani, or any other protester, is executed, “this compounds the reported unlawful killings of protesters by security forces on the streets with state-sanctioned executions.”
Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mai Sato, wrote, “Even if the planned execution is not carried out today, both the declaration of intent to use the death penalty and the sentencing of a protester for moharabeh (enmity against God) are not only unlawful but clear signs of disregard for freedom of assembly and expression. The death penalty is not the response of a country where freedom of assembly and expression are respected.”
Sato did not respond to The Jerusalem Post’s request for comment.
Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, claimed she urged the regime to “stop using threats of death penalty against protestors, and raise[d] the case of Erfan Soltani, who was sentenced in an express judgement that didnt ensure a due process.”
Awyer Shekhi, from Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw, told BBC News that she feared there would be "many" cases like Soltani’s. With Iran’s internet blackout, she warned Radio 4's Today programme that information about those executed or sentenced to be executed may be difficult to acquire.
Soltani’s sister, a lawyer, was refused by authorities when she tried to follow up on her brother’s case, Shekhi said.
Amnesty International Iran, reflecting on the Women, Life, Freedom protests which took hold of Iran in 2022 following the regime’s murder of Mahsa Amini, shared in a statement, “The international community must urgently call on Iran's authorities to immediately halt all executions, including Erfan Soltani.
“Following the 2022 #WomanLifeFreedom uprising, authorities weaponized the death penalty & since embarked on an execution spree killing thousands.”