Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the local representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are pushing for the execution of Iranian Jew Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani, the Kurdish Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported on Wednesday.
Ghahremani, who is being held in the Dizelabad Prison in Kermanshah, was arrested for the killing of Amir Shokri in an incident in which Ghahremani reportedly acted in self-defense. He was set to be executed earlier this week, but his execution was postponed for a month in a last-minute decision on Sunday.
In Iran, the family of a murder victim can choose to accept blood money and grant clemency to the person charged with the murder. The murder of a Muslim and the murder of a non-Muslim are not treated equally by Iranian law. For example, if a non-Muslim kills a Muslim, they are subject to the death penalty unless the family of the victim accepts blood money. But if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim, the law leaves it up to the judge to decide what punishment should be implemented, if any.
According to Hengaw, Habibollah Ghafouri, Khamenei's representative in Kermanshah, and the IRGC's intelligence division have placed pressure on Shokri's family in order to prevent them from accepting a lighter sentence for Ghahremani. The IRGC and Ghafouri are placing this pressure on Shokri's family due to Ghahremani's Jewish faith, according to the report.
Ghahremani is originally from Bukan, a city located north of Kermanshah. Hengaw identified him as a member of the Jewish community of Kurdistan.
The Iranian Jewish community numbers about 8,300.
Several Jews have been executed by the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979.
Executions in Iran
The Islamic regime in Iran has been further intensifying its use of executions against political prisoners and other prisoners in the past year, although it already was implementing the death sentence often beforehand.
Earlier this month, Iranian protester Mahmoud Mehrabi, who was arrested in March 2023 for his protests against the regime, was sentenced to death by a court in Isfahan. Just a few weeks prior, Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death on charges of "corruption on earth" as well. Salehi was arrested during the Women, Life, Freedom protests.
Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.