The machinery of repression and killing operates relentlessly. On October 29, in a horrific act, Khamenei’s henchmen amputated the fingers of two brothers, Shahab and Mehrdad Teimouri, using a guillotine in Urmia Prison. Five other prisoners in Urmia await similar amputations. The two brothers were arrested in December 2018 on theft charges and were subsequently sentenced by the judiciary to amputation of their right-hand fingers.
Amnesty International’s last statement on amputations dates back to 2018, after which, under international pressure, the Iranian regime appeared to have suspended such punishments. Yet these two individuals suffered amputation for minor theft, while in Iran, countless cases of systematic corruption involving astronomical sums and implicating the highest echelons of the regime have been exposed. The latest scandal involves the “Debsh Tea” case.
The ‘Asr Iran’ Telegram channel reported that this enormous corruption case amounted to $3.4 billion. In a shocking report on the scale of this government corruption, they wrote, “Every day, new aspects of the historic ‘Debsh Tea’ scandal… are revealed; a case with a $3.4 billion embezzlement, marking it as the largest financial corruption in Iranian history.” The Supreme Leader’s wealth is currently estimated to exceed $200 billion.
A Staggering Increase in Executions
The number of executions from September 22 to October 21 has surpassed 150, marking the highest monthly execution rate in the past decade. Since the new Iranian president, Massoud Pezeshkian, took office on July 28, 2024, over 386 executions have been carried out. The sentences of female political prisoners, such as Maryam Akbari Monfared, one of the longest-held political detainees, are being extended on flimsy pretexts to prevent their release. Like any dictator under pressure, Iran’s religious ruler resorts to relentless executions and unparalleled repression when cornered.
The Specter of Collapse After the 2022 Uprising
Following the 2022 uprising, the Iranian regime was on the brink of collapse. As with any dictatorship, it needed to create wars and crises in the region to ensure its survival and avoid another uprising that could lead to its overthrow by the Iranian people and their resistance. Today, it is widely recognized that the Iranian regime is a primary instigator of the current conflict in the Middle East. Germany’s Foreign Minister recently stated, “It is absolutely clear that [the Iranian regime] is behind these attacks.” However, it appears that this war has now placed the Iranian regime in a deadlock.
The Iranian regime is in a critical predicament:
- Continue supporting its proxy forces to keep the regional conflict alive, risking direct confrontation with Israel and leading to destabilization and further uprisings.
- Or cease its support for proxies and abandon its warmongering approach, which would remove the cover of war that has masked its internal repression. In this scenario, the Iranian people and their resistance would decide the regime’s fate—something it has desperately tried to avoid through perpetual conflict.
In this predicament, the Iranian regime believes it must resort to terrorizing society to prevent another uprising and its inevitable overthrow.
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