Jewish man stabbed in street fight in Iran executed

In Iran, a Jewish citizen was executed for a fatal stabbing on the street by the Islamic Republic’s courts over allegations of anti-Semitism.

Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was hanged in a prison in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday morning.

According to human rights groups, Ghahremani was defending himself against a stabbing attack in 2022 and killed Amir Shokri in a street fight when he was 18.

The victim’s family, who had ties to high-ranking officials in Tehran, initially agreed to accept blood money; however, this has been questioned by people around the world and the local Jewish community.

In Iran, blood money, known as diya in Islamic law, can be paid to the family of a murder victim as an alternative to the death penalty.

But they later requested execution after becoming aware of Ghahremani’s Jewish background, according to a human rights group.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghadam, Iran’s director of human rights based in Norway, said Ghahremani identified as a Shiite Muslim when he was arrested and the family agreed to accept the money and pardon him.

However, when they realized that he was a Jew, they said, “We do not want their money” and asked for his execution.

‘It was not a premeditated murder’

The Islamic Republic’s supreme court rejected Ghahremani’s appeal twice.

According to prosecutor Hamidreza Karimi, Ghahremani confronted the victim at a sports club following a previous financial dispute.

“The defendant was waiting with a knife in his hand in front of the sports club where the victim was training,” Karimi said, without providing evidence.

“When the victim exited the premises he launched an attack, inflicting multiple wounds to the victim’s back, head, neck and chest,” he added.

Speaking to The Telegraph from Oslo, Mr Amiry-Moghadam said: “There are many flaws in the case.

“In the fight that broke out in a group, in which one person died, Arvin was the only person who stayed at the scene and waited for the ambulance to come and help. “This was not a pre-planned murder.”

Ghahremani’s case has raised concerns within Iran’s Jewish community, which faces additional challenges due to belonging to a religious minority in the Islamic theocratic republic.

Human rights advocates say the case is an example of discriminatory enforcement of Iran’s execution laws.

“We believe that Jewish identity and ongoing antisemitism in the Islamic Republic played a role in ordering the execution,” Amiry-Moghadam said.

“Arvin has nothing to do with the tensions between Iran and Israel, but we were concerned that these tensions might lead the Islamic Republic to execute him, and that’s what happened,” he added.

‘Forced confessions’

Iran’s laws, based on religious ideology, allow the death penalty when a non-Muslim kills a Muslim, while a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim is only required to pay financial compensation to the family.

Human rights groups argue that this legal inequality poses a serious obstacle to fair trials and civil rights in Iran.

While Tehran is executing a record number of prisoners, global attention is focused on the threat of all-out war between Iran and Israel, using tensions as cover to carry out the killings, according to Mr. Amiry-Moghadam.

Iran also executed an Iranian German on terrorism charges last week.

Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death in 2023 after what Amnesty International described as a “forced confession” and “sham trial”.

“At least 166 people were executed in October, marking the highest number of executions in a single month since we began documenting 17 years ago,” Amiry-Moghadam said.

“While the threat of war diverts global attention and media focus, the Islamic Republic uses this as a cover to execute five to six people every day,” he said. “They use executions as a tool to instill fear in the public.”

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