By Azita Carlson
On Wednesday morning, the Iranian regime executed Hamidreza Derakhshandeh, who had killed Mohammad Khorsand, the regime’s Friday Prayer Leader in Kazerun. Friday Prayer leaders are mullahs who directly represent the Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, which makes them much hated among the Iranian population.
Popular protests across Iran in 2018, regularly target Iranian regime officials, by including Friday Prayer leaders, by slogans like for their role in government corruption.
“Dear people of Iran, I love all of you, I love the poor people of Iran, those who don’t have bread to eat at night, those who have become sick of having to borrow money to make ends meet… “I had heard and seen cases of injustice. Hundreds of these cases. There’s only so much I can do to buy and give to the poor. I saw these crimes. I’m not a criminal. This was my first time. My friends know me. I’m not a criminal. I had heard and seen cases of injustice. Hundreds of these cases. There’s only so much I can do to buy and give to the poor. I saw these crimes. I’m not a criminal. This was my first time. My friends know me. I’m not a criminal.” said Hamdreza Derakhshandeh in his comments before his execution.
The same time, the regime’s authorities in Gohardasht prison, Karaj, transferred eight prisoners to solitary confinement to prepare them for execution. Their names are as follows:
• Manuchehr Dehghani
• Alireza Behrad
• Mohsen Rezaiian
• Ebrahim Yarmout Oghli
• Ahmad Ghareh Baghi Balaei
• Reza Mousavi Borghani
• Alireza Araei
• Mirzaei
At least 39 people, including four women and two juveniles at the time of their arrest, were executed in July. Some 3,700 persons have been executed in Iran in the past six years under Rouhani, and Iran is the world record holder of executions per capita.
