Executions in Iran are a warning

Opinion: June 1, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Mohammad Ali Tofighi

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

TEHRAN — Iran’s execution of five political dissidents — including four Kurds — has unleashed an unprecedented level of sympathy among the general public and triggered a one-day strike in the country’s Kurdish provinces.

The reaction, which included protests from opposition leaders, was all the more unusual because Kurds are often viewed with suspicion for wanting their own independent state. Kurds make up about 8 percent of Iran’s population.

The first indication that the executions had taken place on May 7 came when the phone line went dead at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Those familiar with the prison’s routine knew what to expect next.

The next day, a government website announced the execution of five “terrorists and members of counterrevolutionary groups” on charges of “waging war on God or his representative.” Four of the five executed individuals — Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Ali Heydarian and Shirin Alam Holi — were Kurds. A statement by the Tehran prosecutor’s office accused four of those executed of being members of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, PJAK.

The fifth victim was accused of membership in the paramilitary Iran Monarchy Association, a group accused of bombing a mosque in the city of Shiraz in 2008, which killed 14 people.

The families and the lawyers of the accused were not informed of the executions until after they occurred.

Some suspect the executions, coming a month before the anniversary of last year’s controversial presidential election, is the government’s way of sending a not-so-subtle signal to the opposition that public protests will not be tolerated.

Opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had already requested permission for a rally on June 12, the anniversary.

But in case opposition leaders didn’t get the message, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi announced that six others arrested during demonstrations following last year’s vote had also been sentenced to death.

Mohammad Ali Tofighi is the former editor of two Kurdish weekly newspapers who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict. buted by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services