Arvin Ghahremani

Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani (Hebrew: ארווין נתנאל בן סיונה) is an Iranian Jew whose pending execution by the Iranian government in May 2024 was subject to an international campaign calling for his commutation.

Biography

Ghahremani is an Iranian Jew from the city of Kermanshah in western Iran.

In November 2022, then 18-year-old Ghahremani was involved in an altercation when seven men ambushed him at a gym, including Amir Shokri, a non-Jewish man who owed money to Gharemani. According to accounts, the man pulled a knife on Ghahremani, and the resulting altercation resulted in Shokri's death. Ghahremani was sentenced to qisas for murder, with the execution to be carried out at Kermanshah Central Prison on 18 May 2024, then 20 May 2024.

Campaign

Supporters of Ghahremani argued that he acted in self-defense. According to experts on Iran's judicial system, Ghahremani was being subjected to a discriminatory judicial system that prioritized Muslims over Jews.

Shokri's family reportedly repeatedly refused to accept diyat, and attempts by Kermanshah Kalimian Association, the Jewish community in Kermanshah, to mediate with Islamic officials were unsuccessful. The community also made appeals to the governments of Russian and Germany.

On 19 May, Ghahremani received a one-month stay of execution after a global pressure campaign, including by Persian Jewish communities around the world and human rights organizations such as Iran Human Rights. In the previous 28 days before Ghahremani's stay, more than 103 people were executed in Iran.

See also

• Habib Elghanian, Iranian Jew executed shortly after the Iranian Revolution in 1979