Execution of Mohammad Qobadloo Carried Out Amid Judiciary’s Claims Regarding His Case
Mohammad Qobadloo’s execution sentence was carried out this morning, and the judiciary claimed that his case for retrial has been rejected twice by the Supreme Court.
Yesterday evening, news of Mohammad Qobadloo’s execution order being sent to the enforcement department was released, triggering widespread reactions among various institutions and the public. Political prisoner Narges Mohammadi called for public protests regarding this news. Additionally, Prince Reza Pahlavi stated that Mohammad Qobadloo was denied fair trial. Human rights organizations also pointed to numerous violations in Mohammad Qobadloo’s case file.
This morning, Tuesday, Esfand 3, the Islamic Republic’s judicial authority news agency announced the execution of Mohammad Qobadloo. The 23-year-old was among those detained during nationwide protests in 2022 who was accused of running over a special police unit and killing an officer named Farid Karampourhassanvand.
Mohammad’s mother, Massoumeh Ahmadi, released a video last year in which she disclosed that her son had bipolar disorder. According to Ms. Ahmadi’s statements, Mohammad had stopped taking his medications some time before the protests.
Amir Raisian, his defense attorney, announced yesterday that despite the reversal of his client’s qisas (retaliatory) sentence at the Supreme Court, his execution order was sent to the enforcement department on Tuesday. In describing his client’s legal proceedings, he wrote that the death sentence was initially overturned at the Supreme Court and the case was referred to Branch 5 of the Criminal Court of Tehran to issue a new verdict following renewed forensic medical examinations. However, the case remained with this branch for several months, and the Supreme Court responded to a guidance request stating: it is conditional upon the outcome of proceedings in Branch 39.
Mohammad Qobadloo’s attorney Amir Raisian emphasized that with the case remaining unresolved at the Supreme Court, the execution of Mohammad Qobadloo has no legal authorization and is undoubtedly considered murder.
Following the announcement of the execution order, Amnesty International called on Iran’s head of the judiciary to stop the arbitrary and unlawful plan to execute Mohammad Qobadloo. Amnesty International stated that this 23-year-old prisoner is a young person with mental health issues, and the charges against him are based on confessions obtained under torture in a covert process.
It should be noted that in addition to Amnesty International, Clara Bönger, a member of the German Parliament and Mohammad Qobadloo’s political sponsor, and Melissa Lantsman, a member of the Canadian Parliament, also called last night for halting Mohammad Qobadloo’s execution.
Mohsen Shekari, Majid Reza Rahnavard, Mohammad Mahdi Karami, Mohammad Hosseini, Saleh Mirhashemi, Saeed Yaghoubi, and Majid Kazemi were among other detainees from the nationwide protests whose cases faced numerous ambiguities but were executed by the Islamic Republic regime.
