Riots-linked executions: Anti-Iran brigade bent on whitewashing criminals

By Alireza Hashemi

Can anyone whitewash a crime of stabbing two unarmed Basiji members to death using a 30-centimeter knife in broad daylight? That is exactly what the anti-Iran brigade is trying to do these days.

This Monday, Majidreza Rahnavard, a 23-year-old convicted for murdering two Basiji volunteer forces and injuring four others, was hanged in public in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

The gruesome killing of Hossein Zeinalzadeh and Danial Rezazadeh was filmed by bystanders and shared on social media, evoking anger and outrage across the country.

Rahnavard himself had confessed to murder in a video shared widely. But that somehow didn’t appear to be strong enough evidence that he was a murderer. At least for the anti-Iran brigade in the West.

These days, journalists, rights activists, academics, politicians and others have turned into self-proclaimed adjudicators, dishing out verdicts and terming it another atrocity by the Islamic Republic.

The wishy-washy arguments include Rahnavard being tortured to confess to the crime, the trial being a sham, and the execution being a hastily-organized custodial murder.

The UK-based Amnesty International said Rahnavard’s execution followed a “sham unfair trial” and was done to “exact revenge on protesters”. The US-based regime-change provocateur Masih Alinejad claimed that Rahnavard's crime was “protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini”.

In this lop-sided narrative, the fact that this man killed two fellow humans is not worth mentioning. Western media outlets have made a conscious effort to humanize the murderer by referring to him as a “young fitness freak” and an “amateur wrestler” who won several competitions. That, however, cannot mask the horrendous crime he committed.

Freedom fighters or violent rioters?
Rahnavard wasn’t the first to be sentenced to death in connection with deadly, foreign-backed riots. Last week, Mohsen Shekari was also executed for disturbing social order and attacking security personnel in the capital Tehran.

The first execution also generated huge media frenzy by anti-Iran propaganda machinery, with news reports and social media posts claiming a “grossly unfair trial” marked by “undue haste” and based on “forced confessions”.

The United States, European Union members and the United Kingdom jumped to condemn the executions in strongest terms and impose fresh sanctions on Iran. German Chancellor went to the extent of saying his country stood "shoulder to shoulder" with rioters.

Quite clearly, the Western narrative regarding the recent developments in Iran appears to be far removed from reality. Remember when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that Iran is going to execute 15,000 protesters? That’s how foolhardy it can get.

Does it really matter to Western leaders that these “innocent, peaceful protesters” have so far killed over 50 security personnel and injured hundreds of others? Of course not!

Such gross distortions are expected from those who are hell-bent on portraying deadly foreign-backed riots as a “homegrown protest movement”, and senseless rioters as “ordinary civilians”.

Whitewashing crimes, violence
Since the riots erupted in Iran in mid-September, following the unfortunate death of a young Iranian woman while in police custody, the violence perpetuated by rioters has inundated social media.

These rioters have been attacking ordinary civilians, murdering security forces, setting fire to public property and resorting to vandalism. That’s not the complete story though. They have also been slitting people’s throats, burning them alive, among many other acts of mindless violence.

But these hard facts are never reported by the mainstream Western media and never spoken about by the anti-Iran brigade in the West, as rioter violence is not in line with the nefarious agenda. What they report are measures taken by security forces to maintain law and order, terming it as “repression” and “”crackdown” to instill fear in people.

The track record of the US and its allies in launching military invasions and coups to bring down independent governments is not hidden from anyone, including the 1953 coup in Iran. And how does one believe there isn’t a foreign hand in the anarchy that has been unfolding in Iran in recent months when US President Joe Biden himself claiming,  “We’re gonna free Iran!”

A body of lies
The whole story is rooted in lies surrounding the death of Amini three months ago. At the time, the anti-Iran media framed the incident as a murder at the hands of the Iranian police, without even waiting for the medical reports, which eventually dismissed those claims.

And it was not the first time. The 2009 protests following the presidential polls were fueled by allegations of electoral fraud when the winner had 11 millions more ballots than his main challenger.

This time the anti-Iran brigade has taken the game to the next level by not only trying to help the rioters get away with murder but also lionizing them, which

The media frenzy over these executions shows how flawed the logic behind the riots is and how desperate the enemies are in seeing “regime change” in Iran. That, however, will never materialize.
 

Alireza Hashemi is an Iranian political journalist with several years of experience working for Iran's English and Persian-Language media. He tweets:  @AlirezaHash3mi

(The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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