{Originally posted on the Gatestone Institute website}
Now that the world’s headlines are dominated by ISIS, and while Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani is at the UN, Iran is using these distractions to step up its executions, its mass-arrests of minorities, and now its execution of Ayatollah Boroujerdi — that is if Iran, by again withholding crucial medical attention, does not passively execute him first.
Iran’s Prosecutor of the Special Clerical Court, Mohammad Mohavadi, stated that the punishment for these crimes of “anti-government views” is execution, and said that all those who had a hand in publishing Boroujerdi’s book will also be killed. When Boroujerdi suggested an open, public debate, Mohavadi announced that his office did not participate in debates, just trials and punishments [executions]. The regime has been trying to kill Ayatollah Boroujerdi for the past 8 years of his 11-year prison sentence.
The threat of execution comes only one day after Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s latest letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Days before Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani addresses United Nations General Assembly, Ayatollah Hossein Kazamani Boroujerdi, the prominent dissident clergyman was informed that he will be executed for “anti-government views” — that is if Iran, by again withholding repeatedly-requested medical attention, does not passively execute him first.
According to reliable sources inside Iran, “Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s health condition is worse than ever, and prison doctors have said that if the prisoner does not receive immediate medical attention, he will die within days or even hours….” The authorities have been refusing medical intervention.
Ayatollah Boroujerdi has spoken out against political Islam and been strong advocate of the separation of religion and state, for which Iran sentenced him to 11 years as an Iranian political prisoner.
The Human Rights and Democracy in Iran Agency reported that on September 23, 2014, Mohammad Mohavadi, prosecutor of the Special Clerical Court visited Ayatollah Boroujerdi in Ward 325 of Evin prison. Mohavadi informed him that the contents of Boroujerdi’s book were “heresy” against the leadership and insulted the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Mohavadi continued that the punishment for these crimes is execution, and stated that all those who had a hand in publishing the book will also be killed. When Ayatollah Boroujerdi suggested an open, public debate with the Special Court regarding his views, Mohavadi announced that his office did not participate in debates, just trials and punishment [execution].
This threat of execution comes only one day after Ayatollah Boroujerdi’s latest letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was published, on September 22. In this letter Ayatollah Boroujerdi strongly criticizes the government of Iran for mishandling the country’s economy, through corruption and by financing causes in other Muslim countries, instead of spending money on its own citizens, addressing unemployment, rampant poverty and the desperate need for health care.
Boroujerdi, who has an enormous number of supporters and is known worldwide as “Iran’s Mandela,” has also implored the United Nations to help the people of Iran for the sake of history and future generations.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been trying to kill Ayatollah Boroujerdi for the past 8 years of his 11-year prison sentence. The authorities have done this through torture, denial of urgent medical care and even a fire in his ward on July 1, 2014. So far, possibly wary of the global outcry that would ensue both inside and outside Iran if the regime were to execute Boroujerdi, the authorities have refrained from executing him.
However, now that the world’s headlines are dominated by the beheadings, mass-murders and lightening expansion of ISIS, Iran is using these distractions to step up its executions and mass-arrests, and to arrange the imminent murder of Ayatollah Boroujerdi.