Jewish Iranian sentenced to death at ‘imminent risk of execution,’ rights group says

A Jewish Iranian man who was set to be executed last week for killing a man in a brawl two years ago is again at “imminent risk of execution,” an Iranian rights group says.

Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani, 20, was sentenced to death and was expected to be executed last week under the Iranian penal code for retributive justice — or “Qisas” in Arabic — after allegedly killing a man named as Amir Shokri in self-defense when attacked with a knife two years ago, the opposition-linked Iran International news website said. However he received a last-minute stay of execution.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) now says Ghahremani’s appeal was rejected by the Iranian Supreme Court.

According to the group, Ghahremani’s family says that “key errors in the case were intentionally ignored” and his actions to save the victim were not taken into account.

The man’s relatives also say that Ghahremani was not adequately represented by his defense lawyer in court.