Iran’s opaque judicial system will likely order the execution of a young Iranian Jew on Monday for an altercation involving his self-defense that led to the death of a Muslim man, The Jerusalem Post has confirmed.
Beni Sabti, an expert on Iran from the Institute for National Security Studies, told the Post that the Jew facing the arbitrary use of the death penalty in the totalitarian Islamic Republic is Arvin Nethaniel Ghahremani and that he is 23 or 24 years old.
Ghahremani lives in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah. Sabti posted a picture of him on his X feed.
Why is Iran murdering the young man?
Sabti wrote, “This Iranian Jewish man is going to be executed due to [an] act of self-defense against a Muslim man who attacked him with [a] knife but was killed himself.”
הבחור היהודי-איראני הזה, נתנאל, קיבל עונש מוות באיראן. נעשים מאמצים רבים בעולם לשחררו, נשאר רק להתפלל ...This #Iranian #Jewish man is going to be executed due to act of self defence against a muslim man who attacked him with knife but was killed himself. @LahavHarkov pic.twitter.com/8S2p4btOi7
— BenSabti (@BeniSabti) May 17, 2024
Sabti, a Tehran-born Jew who closely monitors the struggles of Iran’s Jewish minority, said there are efforts “to talk with the Muslim family, whose son is dead, to have mercy on him. They can agree in one moment and let him go. It is a tradition in Iran. Even if the rope is on your neck and the other family comes and says, ‘We forgive him,’ they let you.”
Jewish Iranian-Americans are raising funds to send to the Muslim man’s family to secure Ghahremani’s freedom.
Sabti suspects that perhaps the Muslim family is seeking to garner more money and is engaged in high-stakes negotiations with Jewish Iranian-Americans.
Sheina Vojoudi, an associate fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, told the Post that “suddenly, it turns out that Arvin is Jewish and his sentence was reportedly rushed through and, according to his lawyer, his case needs further investigation.”
The name of the Muslim man killed is Amir Shokri.
According to Israeli journalist Emily Schrader’s X post, the altercation unfolded “because he loaned money to a Muslim who then refused to give it back. When Arvin confronted him, the boy tried to stab him with a knife. Arvin fought back and ultimately in self defense, the other boy was killed.”
Schrader posted on X an audio recording from the news organization Manoto, in which Ghahremani’s mother, Sonia, pleaded for her son’s life.
She said, “I need the help of all of you. Please pray for him so that God will show mercy. May their hearts soften and forgive my son. So that he can return home once again.”
Vojoudi added, “In addition to the terrorist nature of the Islamic Republic, the law of the Islamic Republic, which is derived from the law of Islam, deprives the accused of their basic rights. Not the law, but the family of the victim must decide whether the accused should be executed or not. Since he is a Jew, Islamic law will be harsher on him, especially in this case where a Muslim was murdered. This is exactly religious apartheid.”
In April, Iran International reported that the Iranian regime has hanged nearly 900 people in the past 12 months. According to the London-based independent news outlet, “Iran has escalated executions in recent months amid a worsening economic crisis and following nationwide anti-government protests in 2022-2023.” Amnesty International issued a recent report that revealed the clerical regime carried out at least 853 executions in the past year. The number of executions has reached the highest number in eight years.
Amnesty wrote that Iran’s regime conducted a wave of executions in 2023 that targeted demonstrators, dissidents, and users of social media on charges that included “insulting the prophet” and “apostasy” as well as vague charges of “enmity against God” and/or “corruption on earth.”
The London-based human rights organization added, “Last year also marked a shocking escalation in the use of the death penalty against child offenders.”
There are roughly 9,000 Jews left in Iran among a population of nearly 90 million people, according to one estimate.
Iranian-American journalist, Karmel Melamed, who is an expert on Persian Jews, estimates the number of Iranian Jews at between 5,000 and 8,000. The flourishing Iranian Jewish community numbered 80,000 prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after which most Iranian Jews fled.