In a statement on Wednesday, the exiled Queen of Iran Farah Pahlavi condemned the impending execution of three young men in Iran for participating in nationwide protests against the rise in the price of gasoline in November 2019.
The exiled Queen warned that the death sentences will only add to people's anger and make them want revenge.
"This vicious circle must break so that at a not-too-distant future, the people find it in their hearts to forgive the tyrants of today," Queen Farah said in her message and added: "Those who issue such unfair verdicts must be reminded that the person being convicted to [death] by them is a child of this homeland. Think of them as your child, father, mother, brother or sister".
An unprecedented "storm" of tweets to condemn the death sentence for the three young man erupted on Twitter on July 14 with the hashtag "Stop Executions In Iran" reaching a record of 6 billion views and five million retweets.
The spokesman of the Iranian Judiciary on July 14 announced that the death sentences issued for the three young men – Amir-Hossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi – had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the sentences and said the three young men had to confess to crimes such as setting fire to cars and banks under torture. According to their lawyer, they have denied having committed the crimes that they were forced to "confess" on the state-run television.
A call to protests for Friday July 17 was also made by activists, but on Thursday people took to the streets in Behbahan in oil-rich Khuzestan Province and Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, and chanted against the government and death penalty.
As verified by international human rights watchdogs, Iranian forces even used tanks and machine guns against protesters and shot many in the head at point-blank range during the November 2019 protests. Human rights organizations even characterized the outcome of the crackdown at places such as Mahshahr in Khuzestan Province and Shahryar near Tehran as "massacre."
Reuters in December quoted three sources close to Khamenei's inner circle as well as another source as having said that some 1,500 Iranians were killed during the November protests. Khamenei had told the security forces in a public meeting: "Do whatever is necessary to stop" the protests.
