The executions of two activists from the Iranian exiled opposition group, People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI) came despite a plea by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that they be freed.
The Tehran prosecutor’s office named the executed pair as Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaei. It did not say where they were hanged.
“Two elements of the Monafeghin (hypocrites) group named Jafar Kazemi… and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaei … were executed early today,” the prosecutor’s office said on its website, referring to PMOI, which once ran an armed group in Iran.
On August 10, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the Iranian authorities to release the two activists, despite the PMOI being on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.
The prosecutor’s office said “these two hypocrites were members of an active network of the said group and were involved in the (post-election) riots under the guidance of their ringleader in England.”
“The convicts had resorted to distributing pictures and banners related to the Monafeghins, taking photos and films of the clashes as well as chanting slogans in favour of the group.”
The 2009 presidential election result triggered widespread anti-government demonstrations in Tehran.
Dozens of protesters were killed, scores wounded and thousands jailed when security forces clashed with them after the announcement of the election result, which Ahmadinejad’s rivals claim was rigged in his favour.
Clinton had urged that those rounded up, including Kazemi and Hajaghaei, be freed.
“We are also concerned about the fate of Iranians who are in danger of imminent execution for exercising their right to free expression after the June 2009 elections,” Clinton said on August 10 in a statement, naming Kazemi and Hajaghaei.
Her plea for the release of the two activists came despite Washington retaining the PMOI on its list of foreign terrorist organisations, even as the European Union took it off its own similar list in 2009.
In a statement released in France, Maryam Rajavi, head of National Council of Resistance of Iran of which PMOI is a wing, condemned what she said were “barbaric executions” of the activists, adding the international community must “suspend economic and diplomatic ties with the ruling medieval regime” of Iran.
Amnesty International said it was “appalled by the executions”, in a statement from Malcolm Smart, the rights group’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Like so many other victims, neither of these men received a fair trial.”
By Jay Deshmukh