TEHRAN/ISLAMABAD: Iran executed a member of its Jewish minority, Arvin Ghahremani, on Monday, following his murder conviction, reported the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel.
Ghahremani was hanged in Kermanshah prison after being found guilty of murder during a street altercation. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHR, stated, “Amid war threats with Israel, the Islamic Republic executed Arvin Ghahremani, an Iranian Jewish citizen,” and noted that his case reportedly had “significant flaws.” Amiry-Moghaddam added that “institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Islamic republic undoubtedly played a role” in the sentence.
Iran’s Jewish community, once large, has diminished since the 1979 Islamic Revolution but remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel. Although Jewish Iranians faced executions following the revolution, Ghahremani’s execution marks a rare occurrence in recent years. His mother, Sonia Saadati, had pleaded for his life.
Under Iran’s Islamic law of retribution (qisas), Ghahremani’s family requested the victim’s relatives accept blood money as an alternative to capital punishment. However, the judiciary’s Mizan Online reported that the victim’s family declined this offer.
The execution comes amid unprecedented air strikes exchanged between Iran and Israel, following escalated Israeli offensives against Iran-backed groups in Gaza and Lebanon this year.
