Execution for Two Defendants, VIP Treatment for Bakhtar Zanjani; For Whom Is Justice Enforced in Iran?

While two brothers from Kuhdasht, Saeed and Hamid Najafi, were executed in Qarchak Prison following their conviction on charges of “armed robbery,” the publication of images from the grand opening of the “Soorent VIP” complex attributed to Bakhtar Zanjani has triggered widespread reactions on social media; a contradiction that once again raises questions about justice, poverty, and the differential treatment of the weak and the wealthy and powerful in Iran.

Early Tuesday morning, August 25, corresponding to Shahrivar 3, the death sentence of Saeed Najafi and Hamid Najafi, two brothers from Kuhdasht in Lorestan Province, was carried out in Qarchak Prison in Karaj.

According to reports published by human rights organizations and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, these two brothers had previously been sentenced to death in a joint case on charges of “armed robbery,” and the execution of this sentence had not been announced by official media or judicial authorities until the time of the report’s publication.

Subsequently, Tasnim news agency, in publishing a report on the execution, identified Saeed and Hamid Najafi as members of an armed robbery gang and claimed that their case, following judicial review and confirmation of the sentence by the Supreme Court, led to the execution of the death sentence.

However, regardless of the difference in narratives about the case details, this execution once again places a larger issue before Iranian society: how should justice be administered in a society where poverty and inequality have become severely widespread?

Coinciding with the announcement of the execution of these two brothers, images and videos of the opening of a luxury complex called “Soorent VIP” or “VIP Café and Pastry Shop” in the West District of Tehran, which media reports attributed to Bakhtar Zanjani, were published on social media.

The publication of these opening images was accompanied by widespread reactions from social media users; reactions that largely focused on the contradiction between the display of wealth and luxury on one hand and the difficult economic situation of millions of Iranians on the other.

These reactions cannot be viewed simply as a response to a café or an opening ceremony. For many people, the core issue is the image this incident creates of economic inequality and a sense of discrimination in society.

On one side, there are images of a grand and glittering opening, and on the other side, families struggling to pay rent, provide food and medical care, and meet the most basic necessities of life. The economic crisis in Iran has not been limited to merely reducing purchasing power.

In recent years, numerous reports and advertisements about the sale of body organs due to poverty have been published. Even in recent days, reports about advertisements for the sale of body organs and accounts of people willing to sell parts of their bodies to cover their living expenses have been published.

Analytical reports have also documented the formation of informal and black markets for the buying and selling of body organs against the backdrop of economic poverty; a phenomenon that demonstrates that for some segments of society, the human body has become the last capital that can be converted to money for survival.

This image, alongside news of thefts driven by economic pressure, executions of prisoners, and displays of astronomical wealth, raises a bitter question: why in a society where a person might consider selling a body organ to make a living, are poverty and crime answered with such severe punishments, while displays of enormous wealth do not create similar sensitivity?

Armed robbery, if proven, is a crime, and victims of robbery also have the right to experience security and justice. But justice does not gain meaning solely through punishing the accused. Justice makes sense when the law is applied equally to all, the judicial process is transparent, and poverty and social status do not affect the value placed on human lives.

The issue is not that crime should be ignored; the issue is that a society in which class divisions have deepened cannot address the social consequences of poverty merely by punishing lower-class individuals.

If a person resorts to theft to make a living, they must be held accountable for their crime; but at the same time, one must ask what economic and social conditions led them to a point where they saw theft as their means of salvation.

And if an individual has been convicted due to economic corruption, society has the right to know how their capital and economic activities have continued after conviction and under what oversight. The image of two brothers being sent to the gallows following a judicial case and the image of a grand opening next to the name of a controversial economic figure is far more than a simple news event for many Iranians.

These two images side by side are a symbol of the gap that people experience in their lives every day: on one side poverty, unemployment, rent payments, the sale of body organs, and fear of the future; on the other side, capital, luxury, upscale businesses, and the ability to return to the economic sphere.

This is why social media users’ reactions to the opening of this luxurious venue were not merely about a café or a ceremony; these reactions were a reflection of the anger and despair of a society in which a large segment feels that its share of the country’s economy and future consists only of enduring pressure and deprivation.

What demands an answer more than anything else today is not just the fate of two executed prisoners, but the fate of millions of people living under economic pressure. A society in which people consider selling body organs to survive is a society that must first and foremost demand answers about human dignity, social justice, and the government’s responsibility toward poverty.

People should not be trapped between two bitter choices: either fall into theft from poverty and face the harshest punishments, or sell parts of their body to continue living. True justice cannot appear merely at the end of a criminal case; justice must also be seen in the economy, employment, health, education, welfare, and equal opportunities.

And the final question still stands: in a country where two citizens are executed for armed robbery and at the same time images of wealth and luxury are once again placed before the people’s eyes, is the law truly applied equally to all, or is its weight borne more heavily by those with less power and wealth?