The Islamic Republic of Iran’s opaque judicial system is expected to execute a young Iranian Jew on Monday for an altercation involving his self-defense that led to the death of a Muslim man, the Jerusalem Post has confirmed.
Beni Sabti, an expert on Iran from the Institute for National Security Studies, told the Post that the Iranian Jew, who faces the arbitrary use of the death penalty in the totalitarian Islamic Republic, is named Nethanel ben Ziona Ghahremani.
Ziona Ghahremani lives in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah and is believed to be either 23-years-old or 24-years-old. Sabti posted a picture of the man on his X feed.
Why is Iran murdering the young man?
Sabti wrote “This Iranian Jewish man is going to be executed due to act of self-defense against a Muslim man who attacked him with knife but was killed himself.”
הבחור היהודי-איראני הזה, נתנאל, קיבל עונש מוות באיראן. נעשים מאמצים רבים בעולם לשחררו, נשאר רק להתפלל …This #Iranian #Jewish man is going to be executed due to act of self defence against a muslim man who attacked him with knife but was killed himself. @LahavHarkov pic.twitter.com/8S2p4btOi7
— BenSabti (@BeniSabti) May 17, 2024
Sabti, a Tehran-born Jew who closely monitors the struggles of the Iranian Jewish minority, said there are efforts to “to talk with the Muslim family, whose son is dead, to have mercy on him Ziona Ghahremani . They can agree in one moment and let him go. It is a tradition in Iran. Even if the rope is on your neck and the other family comes and says, ‘We forgive him,’ they let you.”
Jewish Iranian-Americans are raising funds to send to the Muslim’s family to secure Ziona Ghahremani’s freedom.
Sabti suspects that perhaps the Muslim family is seeking to garner more money and is engaged in high-stakes negotiations with Jewish Iranian-Americans.
Iran International reported in April that Iran’s regime has hanged nearly 900 people. in the past 12 months. According to the London-based independent news outlet, “Iran has escalated executions in recent months amid a worsening economic crisis, and following nationwide anti-government protests in 2022-2023.”Amnesty International issued a recent report that revealed the clerical regime carried out at least 853 executions in the past year. The number of executions has reached the highest number in eight years.
Amnesty wrote that Iran’s regime conducted a wave of executions in 2023 that targeted demonstrators, dissidents and users of social media on charges including “insulting the prophet” and “apostasy” as well as vague charges of “enmity against God” and/or “corruption on earth.”
The London-based human rights organization Amnesty added Last year also marked a shocking escalation in the use of the death penalty against child offenders.”
There are roughly 9,000 Jews left in Iran from a population of nearly 90 million people, according to one estimate.
The Iranian-American journalist , Karmel Melamed, who is an expert on Persian Jews, estimates the number of Iranian Jews between 5,000 and 8,000. The flourishing Iranian Jewish community once numbered 80,000 prior to the Islamic Revolution. Most Iranian Jews fled Iran after the 1979 revolution.
