Kurdish karate fighter Mohammad-Mehdi Karami, who had been selected to participate in this year’s Olympics in Paris, France, was executed by the Iranian regime on 7 January 2023, after participating in the ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) uprisings sparked by the death of Jîna Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
An Iranian court had convicted Mohammad-Mehdi Karami (22) and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini (39) of killing a paramilitary Basij force member during protests in early December 2022. The Iranian supreme court upheld the death sentences just days after the decision. In a last phone call to his father, he had said “Dad, they gave us the verdict. Mine is the death penalty. Don’t tell Mum anything,” as recalled by his father.
After the execution, discoveries of appalling torture tactics employed by Iranian law enforcement officers were unveiled by an independent Iranian human rights organisation. The prolonged torture included artificial executions staged multiple times, a torture technique known as “fried chicken” (Juje Kabab), involving hanging the individual with their hands and feet restrained behind them for a long time and enduring insults, beatings, and electric shocks.
The rights group further highlighted that merely one day prior to their execution, Karami and Hosseini were informed of their supposed pardon, underscoring the psychological turmoil inflicted upon them.
Karami’s father, Mashallah Karami, was detained in August 2023 and sentenced to six years in prison in May 2024 on charges of “endangering national security” and “propaganda against the regime”.
