Erfan Soltani reportedly facing imminent execution
Erfan Soltani is reportedly facing execution in Iran on Wednesday after he was tried, convicted and sentenced, following his arrest on Thursday.The 26-year-old was arrested in Karaj, a city on the north-west outskirts of Tehran, at the peak of the protests before the internet black-out. Soltani is one of the many thousands of protesters arrested last week.
Amnesty International has highlighted his case, warning of concerns that Iranian authorities might “once again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent”.
According to information gathered by Amnesty, the group said an informed sourced learned on 11 January that officials had told Soltani’s family he was sentenced to death. Soltani had lost contact with loved ones on 8 January amid mass protests and the regime’s internet shutdown, the group said.
Iran is the world’s most prolific executioner after China, according to monitors. Last year, it hanged at least 1,500 people, Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said.
Likely that they do this hundreds of times, if not thousands.
The question then becomes, well, what happens next? A very harsh calculus – do they hang enough to cow the population, or does the population get enraged enough to start hanging back, from lampposts?
No, I have no insight into what does then happen.
So China tops the list, eh? Given his strange mates Alli and China, TTK must think how kind and considerate he is for ensuring Lucy was only locked up for a while…
Iran could go either way. A good rule of thumb in such situations is to find out what Rory Stewart thinks and then believe the opposite…
He’s such a disappointment. His early books were great.
.
I won’t take his racing tips, then.
Well… one thing is certain…
You don’t topple a regime led by religious fanatics, backed up by a cadre of armed religious fanatics, using medieval rules of “Justice”, by singing songs from rooftops or closing shops, or “mostly peaceful protests”.
The real answer has always been unpalatable for the chairwarmers and beau-pensants..
And they’re about as useful in resolving this as a pack of wet cigarette papers. And just as soggy at the mere *thought* of actual violence.
And meanwhile this pustule is allowed to fester on….
Would if be bad form to talk of Iran’s rates of hanging in terms of ‘per capita’?
How much of the population is being “cowed”?
This comes back to my thing about non-industrialised societies being tribal. And Iran isn’t that industrial. Name an Iranian brand. Right, you can’t. The economy is a huge amount about oil. So you need a strong tribe to defend owning the land the oil is under from other people that want to nick it. The members of that tribe are going to be quite indifferent to the suffering of other tribes, or what might be seen as traitors within their neighbourhoods.
It’s the thing no-one grasped about Saddam Hussein. We look with industrial, liberal eyes and see a monster. The Sunnis of Iran saw him as a top bloke. He gave them more of the oil, more of the government jobs.
You’re right about the industrial, liberal eyes bit. We look upon Dewsbury with them, too.
Cheer up. This is roughly the future that nice Mr Blair planned for us.
The Islamic Republic of Great Britain will not be all sweetness and light.
(Why a crypto-Papist should have been so keen on Mussulmen is a deep question.)
No, Bliar [sic] never wanted a UK Islamic Republic. Like most leftists, he was blind to the possibility. Bizarrely, they see muslims as, er, allies…; and diversity as a strength…
And the leftists largely silent on the Iran protests are as wryly amusing as they are utterly contemptible…
diversity is strength
Tell that to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Hmmmm!! Our policy is usually to wait until your innovation has been proved an utter failure, and then to copy it.
So I suppose we’ll end up feeling the Bondi shootings were a period of calm in the midst of our rapid progress towards delightful diversity.
Thousands of his fellow protesters have already been executed. They are going to need to set fire to more than photos of the ayatollah if they want to get anywhere.
It’s a question of who “they” are. If enough people with guns convert from regime supporters to regime opponents then the original “they”, the unarmed protestors, will will win.
Time for the Kurds and perhaps the Balochs to make a stab at forming a secessionist State. They will need guns though.
The history book on the shelf, it’s always repeating itself.
That guy in Syria, Rory Stewart’s mate, Ahmed Al-Sharaa started out holding Idlib for a few years before breaking out and taking most of the country. The successful overthrows seem to start in the sticks, with an army of course.
I think this goes the same way as uprisings against Lukashenko. It will fail sadly.
Time for the Israelis to give the regime a good shove
Or Trump starts taking out IRGC leadership and maybe a few Mullahs to add spice…
Bring it on!!
As someone recently pointed out: why are the IRGC barracks still standing?
Hate to be cold, but I can’t see why shit 7,000 miles away should concern the US. Iranians must fight with their bare hands to strangle their oppressors. Not my job, Mon.
Because the mad as Shiite Clerics hate you and are trying to get nuclear weapons.
Luckily the Make America Small Again contingent is already small.
Since Gerald Ford was president. SFW?
My attitude to most foreign fusses is:
Don’t let a single one of them into Australia
Don’t give them a single penny of our money.
So I suppose I pretty much agree with you, Gamecock!!