Ghobadlou, 23, was accused by the Iranian judiciary of deliberately running over a group of police officers on motorcycles with a car, killing one and injuring five others. He was accordingly convicted of charges of “corruption on Earth” and sentenced to death by Tehran’s revolutionary court.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online claimed that Ghobadlou had confessed to driving the car “with the intention of murder.”
The execution was carried out at Tuesday dawn in a Karaj prison, despite the protester’s reported struggles with mental health issues, more specifically bipolar disorder, which resulted in strong criticism and condemnation from local and human rights monitors.
“Considering the prisoner’s mental status, the carrying out of the penalty is an inhumane act and a clear violation of international human rights standards,” said Hengaw Human Rights Organization.
Amnesty International called on the judiciary to stop the execution hours before it was carried out, noting that “the case of this young man with a disability arrested in connection with the 2022 protests has been marred by torture and secretive proceedings.”
The court’s forensic psychiatrist had denied that Ghobadlou struggled with mental health issues at the time of the crime.
“Symptoms and evidence of a major psychiatric disorder that causes a lack of discernment and control of the will are not observed in the accused at the time of the crime,” said Mizan citing the psychiatrist.
Twenty-two-year-old Kurdish woman Amini died while in police custody on September 16, 2022 after she was arrested for allegedly wearing a lax hijab. Her death sparked Iran’s longest protest movement in the past four decades. Protesters chanting “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman Life Freedom) called for greater freedoms for women. The movement grew into an anti-government revolution as the authorities responded with violence. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands arrested.
Ghobadlou is the eleventh Amini protester executed by Iranian authorities since September 2022, according to Hengaw.
Iran is consistently one of the countries with the highest rate of known executions around the world. Many of those who are executed in Iran are convicted based on confessions condemned by rights groups as often obtained under duress.
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