Majidreza Rahnavard was the second protester executed by the Iranian state during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, convicted of moharebeh in a Revolutionary Court trial that violated every fair-trial standard Iran has signed onto.
He was arrested on 19 November 2022, accused of killing two Basij members during a protest. The trial in Mashhad's Revolutionary Court reached a verdict within weeks. The state filmed his last words at the gallows and released them as a public warning. His family was not allowed to say goodbye.
Public hanging from a crane is a deliberate piece of stagecraft, not a legal outcome. The state was telling the next protester what waits at the end of the road. Iran International was among the outlets that broke the news of the execution from leaked state imagery.
Naming him is part of refusing to let public execution be reduced to a statistic. The Persian phrase for his fate, e'dam dar mal-e am (public execution), is in the political vocabulary because of cases like his.
What it is
Majidreza Rahnavard (مجیدرضا رهنورد) was a 23-year-old executed by public hanging in Mashhad on 12 December 2022, the second Mahsa Movement protester to be put to death by the Islamic Republic. He had been arrested in November 2022 and convicted of moharebeh (waging war against God) in a closed Revolutionary Court proceeding for the killing of two Basij members during protests. UN and Amnesty observers documented that the trial lasted under a month, denied him an independent lawyer, and relied on a televised confession bearing signs of duress. His family was not informed of the execution in advance and learned of it from state media images.
Sources
- Amnesty International, second Mahsa execution (December 2022)
- OHCHR, UN experts on Rahnavard execution (December 2022)
- Human Rights Watch, Rahnavard execution (December 2022)
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