ISTANBUL (RNS) — Arvin Ghahremani, a 20-year-old Iranian Jew accused of murder, was hanged by the country’s Islamic regime on Monday (Nov. 4) after a monthslong trial that was closely watched by the Persian Jewish diaspora as well as human rights groups.
Two years ago Ghahremani was involved in an altercation with another man, a Muslim named Amir Shokri, in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, where both lived, resulting in Shokri’s death.
According to Ghahremani’s family and the Iranian Jewish community, Shokri, who had owed Ghahremani money, attacked Ghahremani with a knife during a conversation about the debt. Government prosecutors have cast doubt on this account, saying, according to Iranian media, that no one else was present at the scene.
Ghahremani was quickly sentenced to “qisas,” or retributive justice, under Iran’s Sharia-influenced legal system and sentenced to death unless the victim’s family would accept a blood payment, known as “diya,” from Ghahremani.
But Iranian law distinguishes in such matters between Muslims and non-Muslims, frequently discriminating against the latter group. Were the faiths of the two men swapped, observers have pointed out, the Muslim perpetrator would not be liable for qisas, leaving the punishment to the discretion of the local judiciary.
“We note with concern that Iranian authorities often subject Jewish citizens to different standards when it comes …