What is war, crime against God, where Iran executes protesters?

Human rights defenders say it is a widely interpreted crime and applied with an iron fist against regime opponents without due process.

Justice in Iran contemplates a very serious crime, because it is practically a death sentence by definition in the context of Islamic law: the crime of “hatred against God” or “combat”.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far executed hundreds of people for this crime.

This week he hanged two protesters linked to protests across the country since September, after a young woman arrested by the morality police for improperly wearing a headscarf died in police custody.

Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, both 23, were executed a few days after being convicted of combat crimes by the revolutionary court.

Shekari was found guilty of attacking a paramilitary Besij Resistance Force member with a machete in Tehran, while Rahnavard was found guilty for allegedly killing two members of the same group.

Human rights organizations denounced the way protesters were sentenced to death without trial in unlawful courts and warned of the “serious risk of mass executions for demonstrators”.

They point out that people accused of combat do not have the right to independent counsel and that most cases are based on forced confessions.

What is most interesting from a conventional legal perspective is that crime is open to interpretation. “The prosecution depends on a judge who believes a war is being waged against God,” says Amir Azimi, editor-in-chief of the BBC’s Persian service.

‘enemies of God’

After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iranian law began to shift from its secular basis to sharia (Islamic law).

“The emerging Islamic Republic of Iran has started to apply this law globally because it is a code of conduct for Muslims,” ​​says Azimi.

Combat in Sharia is a technical legal term meaning criminals are “enemies of God”, with various translations such as “war against God”, “war against the state and God” or “hatred against God”.

According to Article 279 of the Islamic Penal Code, combat may mean drawing weapons to attack or intimidate people’s life, property or honor, and in a way that creates insecurity in the environment.

Azimi points out that this is one of the main accusations.

“Literally, if a person takes weapons (be it firearms or knives) and uses them to ‘terrorize’ someone, they are considered to be engaged in combat. It is not necessary to cause someone’s death. Just to threaten the victim.”

According to this interpretation, Mohsen Shekari, who was the first to be executed in the recent protests, should be convicted for wounding one of the Bajib paramilitaries.

Even if the accused presented an exculpatory argument, there was another basic charge on which he was convicted: blocking the road.

“Road blocking is also seen as part of the crime, as it historically goes back to former thieves who blocked roads to rob passersby,” Azimi says.

There is a real interpretation of the facts here, as barricades occur all the time when there are demonstrations, as with most current protests, even if they are peaceful.

personal action

A very important part of interpreting the crime also concerns whether the attack was personal.

For example, someone who kills another person for personal reasons is not necessarily classified as a combat criminal.

“If the killer paid for the crime or if the victim’s family forgave him, he wouldn’t have been lucky enough to be executed,” says Azimi.

But in a protest, the protesters do not direct their anger at anyone in particular, so their actions are not personal. In this case, they are indeed liable to be charged with combat.

This, in turn, allows the law to be used more and more politically. It equates to the very vague term “terrorizing”.

“From the point of view of the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which sees itself as the representative of Allah on earth, if there is a movement, a group or a person who wants to change this regime, they already do so. They are accused of fighting against God and therefore automatically making war,” he said. explains Perseverance.

Almost without discussion, they are executed for this great crime. Many political activists were accused, arrested, tried and convicted of the same crime.

political weapon

Due to its political nature, the regime uses it against individuals or opposition groups or dissidents whose struggles for political claims might be legitimate in other contexts. But in Iran, as a rule, they are accused of this crime, for which they are less able to defend themselves.

“This has happened before against Kurds and other minority communities,” says Azimi.

Human Rights Norway-based Iran condemned the September 2018 execution of Kurdish political detainees Loghman Moradi and Zanyar Moradi, claiming that their confessions were made by force and that they lacked adequate legal representation.

These are some of the strongest criticisms of the practice of this crime, as the accused do not have access to an independent defense. The court appoints them a lawyer who essentially repeats the judge’s decision.

If the accused is able to hire a private lawyer, he will not be allowed to be interviewed and will not be able to present evidence in his defense. You cannot appeal the sentence.

For his part, the judge of the revolutionary court has a lot of room to interpret the crime and make his decision.

Iran’s leaders described the protests as “riots” incited by the country’s external enemies.

“From the government’s point of view, these people were misled by anti-regime foreign agents and caused them to act that way,” says Azimi, “so if you say you were misled or out of your mind, you could be forgiven.”

Activists point out that state media often broadcast false confessions of detainees.

In a video broadcast on state television after his arrest, Rahnavard does not deny attacking Basij members, but says he does not remember details because he was not in his right mind. Yet he was executed.

Over the past four decades, Iran has executed thousands of people. It is the country that carries out the most executions every year after China.

– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-63986405.