Demotix News Agency, January 24, 2011 – According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Jafar Kazemi, 47, and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaeit, who were traveling to Camp Ashraf to visit loved ones, were members of the Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO, also PMOI – The People’s Mojahedin of Iran) and had filmed and distributed footage of huge opposition and anti-government protests that erupted in Tehran and other cities after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.
These actions by the government were the first reported hangings since people took to the streets following the re-election of Ahmadinejad.
In the post election turmoil, dozens of protesters were killed, with thousands injured and also arrested by security forces following the announcement of the result, which Ahmadinejad’s rivals claim was rigged in his favour.
On 10th January, Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt MP said: “I am also deeply concerned by reports that Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj-Aghaie may be imminently executed for ‘enmity against God’. The United Kingdom condemns the use of the death penalty, and appeals for these sentences to be commuted.”
In the US on August 10th, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the Iranian authorities to release the two activists, despite the PMOI being on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.
The European Union took the PMOI off of their similar list of terrorist threats in 2009.
Iran has sentenced at least a dozen activists to death for their role in the post-election civil unrest. Six sentences have been upheld by the Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafar Dolatabadi, with the Monday’s hangings on the first carried out.
Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaeit were arrested in September 2009.
The PMOI has been responsible for several acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials and has been known to have participated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces during their war with Iran in the 80s.
Members of Camp Ashraf were disarmed after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US-led forces.
The Camp has continuously been under inhumane siege by Iraqi army and agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) for the past two years.