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Iran: Worrying Increase of Executions
By JUBIN KATIRAIE
According to the Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM), the number of executions in Iran has increased since the presidential election in June. With the 52 executions that took place in July taking the total number for 2021 so far up to 192, it shows just how the human rights situation in Iran is worsening.Iran HRM said, “Of these, only five have been reported by the state media. The actual number of executions in Iran is much higher. The Iranian regime carries out most executions in secret and out of the public eye. No witnesses are present at the time of execution but those who carry them out.”
One of the last countries in the world that, to this day, continues to routinely use the death penalty for crimes committed by children under the age of 18, Iran is in complete violation of its commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
One example of this is the case of Ebrahim Shahbakhsh, a 23-year-old prisoner from Baluchi. He was executed in July by Iranian authorities, six years after his arrest on drug-related charges at the age of 17.
Of the 52 executions that took place in July, 18 were in regards to drug-related offenses, 30 were carried out for murder charges, and 2 for rape. It is unknown if the details or reason behind the final 2 executions.
Iran HRM said, “Ebrahim Raisi has become president of Iran, even though his resume is filled with crimes against the Iranian people and humanity. Shortly after his ascension was announced, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard criticized Raisi’s rise to the second-most powerful position in the country.”
Callamard stated that the fact that Ebrahim Raisi has been able to ascend to a presidential role instead of undergoing any investigation into his crimes against humanity over the past 4 decades is a grim reminder that impunity continues to reign supreme in Iran.
Iran HRM said, “According to Amnesty International Iran is the most prolific user of capital punishment in the region and the second worldwide after China.”
Even though government officials have admitted that the executions of inmates who have been convicted for drug-related charges are ineffective in the battle to combat drug smuggling, the Iranian government is continuing to implement death sentences for these prisoners. In fact, the executions are bringing about the reverse effect, with drug smuggling still continuing to take place.
Iran HRM is now calling upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, and other human rights institutions around the world to take urgent action in order to save the lives of the Iranian prisoners who are currently on death row.
Iran HRM said, “The Iranian regime’s dossier of human rights violations must be referred to the UN Security Council. The leaders and officials of the clerical regime in Iran must face justice for four decades of committing crimes against humanity.”
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Iran expels Italian nun who has spent her life for the poor of the country
Vatican News
Seventy-five-year-old Sister Giuseppina Berti, who has worked for 26 years in the leprosarium of Tabriz and now lives in Isfahan in the house of the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, will have to leave Iran in the coming days. In fact, her visa has not been renewed and she has received a travel order. Her departure will make it difficult for her fellow nun, Sister Fabiola Weiss, a 77-year years old Austrian, who has dedicated 38 years to the poor and the sick in the leprosy hospital, and whose residence permit has been renewed for another year
The two religious nuns, who have dedicated their lives to the country’s sick without distinction of religious or ethnic affiliation, are forced to abandon the Congregation’s house, built in 1937. In Isfahan, the Daughters of Charity had dedicated themselves for years to the education and training of young people. Their commitment to hundreds of Polish children, refugees and war orphans, who arrived in Iran in the spring of 1942, should also be remembered. In fact, the sisters ran a large school in the city, which was confiscated after the 1979 revolution. In recent years, the two sisters did not carry out any outside activities, to avoid being accused of proselytizing.
The house of the sisters is currently the only reality of the Latin Catholic Church in Isfahan and their chapel, built in 1939, serves as the parish of the “Powerful Virgin”, which is occasionally made available to visitors for the celebration of Mass
This is the current reality of the Catholic Church in Iran: two Assyrian-Chaldean archdioceses of Tehran-Ahwaz and Urmia-Salmas, which have one bishop and four priests (in the summer of 2019, the patriarchal administrator of Tehran of the Chaldeans, Ramzi Garmou, was also denied a visa renewal and could no longer return to the country); an Armenian diocese in which there is only a bishop and the Latin archdiocese which currently has no priest and is awaiting the arrival of its newly appointed pastor, Archbishop Dominique Mathieu. As for the religious presence, the Daughters of Charity operate in the country, with three sisters in Tehran and two sisters in Isfahan. There are also two consecrated laywomen. The faithful number about 3,000.
With the departure of the nuns, the presence of the Latin Catholic Church in Isfahan would be permanently lost. In 2016, the house of the Lazarist Fathers in the city of Isfahan had also been confiscated. It is to be hoped that the Iranian authorities will retrace their steps and reconsider their decision, allowing the sisters to continue in the country that they have loved so much and served with sacrifice and dedication. -
Eight Executions in Iran Within Two Days
120,000 OPPOSITION MEMBERS HAVE BEEN EXECUTED IN IRAN SINCE JUNE 20, 1981.
In only two days, May 24 and 25, authorities in Iran hanged at least eight inmates in the prisons of Isfahan and Birjand, human rights defender association No to Prison – No to Execution reported.Two Executions in Isfahan Prison
At dawn on Monday, May 24, authorities quietly executed two prisoners on drug-related charges in Isfahan Central Prison. Activists identified them Kianoush Ali-Moradi, 50, and Ahmad-Ali Qodrati. Mr. Ali-Moradi was married and had several children.The official media have yet to report these executions as of this report. The Iranian government continues to implement death sentences against inmates who have been convicted on drug-related charges while relevant officials have frankly admitted that the executions are fruitless. They say that not only are these executions ineffective in combatting drug smuggling, but they have brought reverse effect.
Furthermore, it was supposed that the issuance of death penalty be limited based on new reforms in the Islamic Republic’s constitution applied in 2017. Judges were expected to consider one degree alleviation in drug-related cases. Nevertheless, authorities still hang inmates for insignificant charges.
Execution of Six Baluch Inmates
At dawn on Tuesday, May 25, Iranian authorities mass executed six Baluch inmates in Birjand Prison on drug-related charges. They were from Zabol city, in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. However, the judiciary had exiled them to Birjand Prison, in the northeastern province of South Khorasan.Activists identified one executed inmate as 34-year-old Javad Nakhaei, the son of Ali. There is no further information about the other executed persons. Their families had reportedly been banned from a last visit with their loved ones. These executions were also implemented silently, and state media avoided covering the news.
However, an eight-second video obtained from a morgue shows the lifeless bodies of the executed inmates. Meanwhile, at dawn on May 19, authorities had hanged two other Baluch inmates identified Younes Totazehi and Abdollah Totazehi based on similar allegations in the same prison.
In this respect, since the beginning of the new Persian year on March 21, at least 40 prisoners have been hanged in Iran. Human rights organization reported most of executions are carried out in secret meaning that the actual number of executions is far higher.
According to Amnesty International’s 2020 report, rights organization and activists registered the implementation of at least 283 death sentences across the globe, aside from China. Out of this number, at least 246 cases were implemented in Iran indicating that well over half of worldwide executions were applied in the country. The Islamic Republic is also the record-holder of executions per capita, based on official stats.
In such circumstances, Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi is running in the Presidential election scheduled for June 18, which forecasts much more human rights violations to come in Iran.
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Death penalty 2020: Middle East and North Africa dominates list of world’s top executioners
21 April 2021, 01:01 UTC
Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia accounted for 88% of known global executions in 2020
Egypt tripled number of yearly executions
Iran accounted for 56% of all recorded executions in MENA
85% drop in executions recorded in Saudi Arabia
Oman and Qatar resumed executions for first time in several years
Lowest number of executions globally in a decade for third consecutive year
Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) ruthlessly persisted with executions, defying the unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, making them some of the world’s most prolific executioners of 2020, said Amnesty International in its annual global death penalty report today.The report reveals that four out of five of the world’s top executioners are MENA states. Iran (246+), Egypt (107+), Iraq (45+) and Saudi Arabia (27) accounted for 88% of all reported executions carried out worldwide in 2020, excluding China, which is believed to execute thousands each year, making it the world’s most frequent executioner.
“Throughout 2020 countries from the Middle East and North Africa displayed a ruthless and chilling persistence in carrying out plans to put people to death even during a year when most of the world was focussed on protecting people’s lives from a deadly virus,” said Heba Morayef, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
“Despite a clear global trend showing most countries moving away from use of the death penalty, MENA states make up the majority of an increasingly isolated group of entrenched executioners out of step with the rest of the world, fuelling the vast majority of executions worldwide.”
Despite a clear global trend showing most countries moving away from use of the death penalty, MENA states make up the majority of an increasingly isolated group of entrenched executioners out of step with the rest of the world, fuelling the vast majority of executions worldwide
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International
Decline in executions overshadowed by setbacksOverall, the number of executions recorded in MENA dropped by 25% to their lowest levels in a decade falling from 579 in 2019 to 437 in 2020. This decrease was largely driven by a staggering 85% drop in recorded executions in Saudi Arabia and a reduction in executions by more than half in Iraq.
However, this drop was overshadowed by a significant spike in recorded executions in Egypt -with a more than threefold rise from 32 in 2019 to 107 in 2020 overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world’s third most frequent executioner last year. During a spike in executions in October and November, Egyptian authorities executed at least 57 people –nearly double the number of people known to have been put to death in Egypt in the whole of 2019.
Iran which carried out at least 246 executions retained its place as the top executing country in MENA and the second worldwide after China.
In an alarming step backwards, Qatar carried out its first execution in 20 years putting to death Anil Chaudhary, a Nepali national and Oman executed four people for the first time since 2015.
Excluding China, where the death penalty is a state secret, 437 out of the 483 total recorded executions worldwide – 90%- took place in the MENA region.
MENA was also the only region known to have carried out the execution of women in 2020 putting to death a total of 16: Egypt (4), Iran (9), Oman (1) and Saudi Arabia (2).
“While the overall number of executions within MENA has fallen compared to previous years, it still vastly outnumbers the quantity of executions recorded in the rest of the world, excluding China,” said Heba Morayef.
“Instead of consolidating their commitment to judicial executions MENA governments should establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to ending use of the death penalty completely.”
Executions after unfair trials and other violations of international law
The rate of executions is even more disturbing given that the death penalty in MENA is regularly applied after trials that do not meet international fair trial standards. People in MENA continued to be executed or sentenced to death in 2020 for acts that should not be criminalized and other offences that do not meet the threshold of most serious crimes, meaning intentional killings, as required by international law.
At least 23 of the 107 people executed in Egypt were sentenced to death in cases relating to political violence, after grossly unfair trials marred by forced “confessions” and other serious human rights violations, including torture and enforced disappearances. Executions in Egypt shot up drastically following a security incident involving death row prisoners in the notorious al-Aqrab prison in September.
In Iran at least three people were executed for crimes that occurred when they were below the age of 18, in violation of international human rights law which prohibits the use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders.
Although recorded executions in Iran- which alone carried out more than half of all recorded executions in MENA – continued to be lower than previous years, following 2017 amendments to an anti-narcotics law reducing the penalties for drug-related offences, 23 people were executed for drug-related offences in 2020. Authorities have also increasingly used the death penalty as a weapon of political repression against dissidents, protesters and members of ethnic minority groups, in violation of international law. In December, following conviction in a grossly unfair trial, dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam was executed in connection with his anti-establishment social media news channel.
Military courts sentenced civilians to death in Libya following grossly unfair trials.
Use of the death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstance and its prolific use in MENA is alarming because of the frequency with which it is applied after flawed convictions based on confessions extracted through torture or other ill-treatment
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International
“Use of the death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstance and its prolific use in MENA is alarming because of the frequency with which it is applied after flawed convictions based on confessions extracted through torture or other ill-treatment,” said Heba Morayef.Drop in executions in Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia executions sharply declined from 184 in 2019 to 27 in 2020 – the lowest number recorded since 2010. The Saudi Arabia Human Rights Commission attributed the drop in part to “a moratorium on the death penalty in drug-related offences.” However, no moratorium had been officially announced in 2020.
The reduction may also have been due to disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and a desire to avoid international criticism from overshadowing Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the G-20 and its hosting of the G-20 summit. For the five months prior to the G-20 summit from the end of July to November, no executions were carried out in Saudi Arabia. However, executions resumed soon after the country’s G-20 presidency ended on 30 November.
Global executions reach lowest number in a decade
Globally, at least 483 people were known to have been executed in 2020 (excluding countries where death penalty data is classified as a state secret, or where limited information is available – China, North Korea, Syria and Viet Nam). This is the lowest number of executions recorded by Amnesty International in at least a decade. It represents a decrease of 26% compared to 2019, and 70% from the high-peak of 1,634 executions in 2015.
According to the report, the fall in executions was down to a reduction in executions in some retentionist countries and, to a lesser extent, some hiatuses in executions that occurred in response to the pandemic.
The number of death sentences known to have been imposed worldwide (at least 1,477) was also down by 36% compared to 2019.
As of April 2021, 108 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and 144 countries have abolished it in law or practice.
For more information about global executions in 2020 please see:
Death penalty 2020: Despite Covid-19, some countries ruthlessly pursued death sentences and executions
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EU designates 8 Iranian senior officials and 3 prisons over human rights abuses
The EU has adopted Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/584 and Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2021/585, which designate 8 officials and 3 prisons under the EU’s sanctions regime concerning serious human rights abuses in Iran. They have been listed over their roles in the “violent response” to demonstrations held in Iran in November 2019, which caused the deaths, injury to, or unjust detention of unarmed protesters and civilians. See press release.The officials are: Gholamreza Soleimani (Head of the Basij Organisation of the IRGC); Hossein Salami (Commander in Chief of the IRHC); Hassan Karami (Commander of the Special Units of the Iranian police force); Mohammad Pakpour (Commander in Chief of the IRGC Ground Forces); Hossein Ashtari (Commander in Chief of the Iranian police force); Gholamreza Ziaei (Former Director of Evin Prison); Hassan Shahvarpour (IRGC Commander of Khuzestan Province); and Leyla Vaseghi (Governor of Shahr-e Qods). All are US-listed with the exception of Mr Karami and Ms Vaseghi.
Evin Prison, Fashafouyeh Prison and Rajaee Shahr Prison have also been listed.
In addition, the EU has renewed the Iran human rights sanctions regime for 1 year until 13 April 2022. These measures impose an asset freeze and travel ban on a total of 89 people and 4 entities, and prohibit exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression or to monitor telecommunications.
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Exclusive: EU set to sanction more Iranians for rights abuses, first since 2013, diplomats say
BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union is set to agree to sanction several Iranian individuals on Wednesday for human rights abuses, the first such measures since 2013, three EU diplomats said.
FILE PHOTO: The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo
EU envoys are expected to agree to impose travel bans and asset freezes on the individuals, the diplomats said, and their names would be published next week, when the sanctions take effect. They gave no further details.The European Union declined to comment.
Like the United States, the European Union has an array of sanctions over human rights since 2011 on more than 80 Iranian individuals which has been renewed annually every April. Those will also be renewed on Wednesday, the three diplomats said.
Asked why the latest measures were being taken now, one of the diplomats said the EU was seeking to take a tougher stance to uphold human rights. This month, the EU sanctioned 11 people from countries including China, North Korea, Libya and Russia.
“Those responsible for serious rights violations must know there are consequences,” an EU diplomat said.
The United Nations has regularly complained that Iran arrests political opponents in a clampdown on freedom of expression. On March 9, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, presented a report documenting Iran’s high death penalty rate, executions of juveniles, the use torture to coerce confessions and the lawful marriage of girls as young as 10 years old.
Iran has repeatedly rejected accusations by the West of human rights abuses. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.
NUCLEAR ACCORD
Despite the human rights situation, no Iranians have been added to that list since 2013, however, as the bloc has shied away from angering Iran in the hope of safeguarding a nuclear accord Tehran signed with world powers in 2015.The three diplomats said the sanctions were not linked to efforts to revive the nuclear deal, which the United States pulled out of but now seeks to re-join. That deal made it harder for Iran to amass the fissile material needed for a nuclear bomb – a goal it has long denied – in return for sanctions relief.
The EU revoked its broader set of economic and financial sanctions on Iran in 2016 after the nuclear deal was struck, although it did impose sanctions on an Iranian intelligence unit and two of its staff in 2019, alleging Tehran plotted attacks in Denmark, France and the Netherlands. Iran rejects the accusations.
In a rare move last September, France, Britain and Germany summoned Iran’s envoys to admonish them over their country’s human rights record in what France’s foreign ministry said were “serious and constant violations.”
The three European countries had pushed for sanctions over Iran’s missile programme and its involvement in Syria in March 2018, when Britain was still a member of the EU.
But other EU governments feared it could also upset European firms’ chances of winning lucrative contracts in Iran as the country tried to open up after decades of isolation.
Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Robin Emmott, Editing by William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Iran: Women and girls treated as second class citizens, reforms urgently needed, says UN expert
GENEVA (8 March 2021) – Women and girls continue to be treated as second class citizens in Iran, a UN expert says in a report to the Human Rights Council, citing domestic violence, thousands of marriages of girls aged between 10 and 14 each year and continuing entrenched discrimination in law and practice.“One of the most concerning issues in Iran today when it comes to the rights of women and girls is the issue of child marriage,” Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in the report to be presented to the 47-member body on 9 March.
“The Government and other leaders in the country must raise the marriage age now and introduce further policies and programmes to reduce this practice in the country.”
By law, a girl as young as 13 years can marry, while girls even younger can legally marry with judicial and paternal consent. In the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, over 16,000 girls aged between 10 and 14 years have married, according to official Government figures.
“The current legal marriage age is simply unacceptable. It is clear that child marriage is harmful for the development and well-being of girls, including in terms of education, employment and to live free of violence. While I note previous attempts to amend the law, pressure must now be brought to raise the marriage age, in line with Iran’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Rehman said.
The report also highlighted serious concerns regarding domestic violence. Some positive steps are noted, such as a law against acid attacks, but the Special Rapporteur pressed the Iranian Government to do more.
“Existing protections against violence are insufficient to comprehensively safeguard women and children. I acknowledge that the anti-violence bill before parliament provides some positive measures, but as my report details, it does not go far enough. I urge for further improvements to the bill before it is enforced and to extend support services for women and children who experience domestic violence,” Rehman said.
While finding some progress, such as in education and citizenship rights, his report details how gender discrimination permeates almost all areas of law and practice, treating Iranian women as second-class citizens. He has provided the Government with recommendations to ameliorate these issues, including ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Iran is one of only a few states not to have signed the Convention.
“Blatant discrimination exists in Iranian law and practice that must change. In several areas of their lives, including in marriage, divorce, employment, and culture, Iranian women are either restricted or need permission from their husbands or paternal guardians, depriving them of their autonomy and human dignity. These constructs are completely unacceptable and must be reformed now,” he said.
The Special Rapporteur also called on the Government to implement concrete measures to end the culture of impunity for serious human rights violations and to hold those responsible for violations accountable. Rehman specifically raised the Government’s failure to properly investigate the security forces’ bloody crackdown on the November 2019 protests, which killed over 300 people. He remained concerned at the high death penalty rate, especially the execution of child offenders, and those executed in relation to protests and freedom of expression, such as Navid Afkari and Ruhollah Zam, as well as reports of the widespread use of torture to extract forced confessions.
Rehman raised his concerns that sanctions have hindered Iran’s response to COVID-19. He echoed calls by the Secretary-General and High Commissioner for Human Rights for States to at least ease sanctions in support of the fight against COVID-19. However, the Rapporteur said that the Government’s opaque and inadequate Coronavirus response had resulted in excess deaths, including those of medical professionals working without sufficient protective equipment.
He also underlined deep concerns that arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, journalists, labour rights activists, dual and foreign nationals and lawyers continue to be imprisoned despite the COVID-19 risks. State targeting of these individuals for exercising fundamental freedoms also continues, including Yasaman Aryani, Monireh Arabshahi and Mojgan Keshavarz, who are imprisoned for protesting against compulsory veiling laws on International Women’s Day 2019, and other women human rights defenders, like Nasrin Sotoudeh, Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee.
The Special Rapporteur repeated his dismay at human rights violations perpetrated against Iran’s religious, ethnic and sexual minorities. Since his report was finalized, further disturbing incidents against Iran’s minorities have emerged, including more than 20 executions of Baluch death row prisoners, the suspicious death of imprisoned Gonabadi Dervish follower Behnam Mahjoubi, excessive use of force against protesters in Sistan and Baluchistan province, the detention of over 100 Kurdish activists, and house raids and land confiscations against members of the Baha’i faith.
The Special Rapporteur is scheduled to present his report to the Human Rights Council in an interactive dialogue on 9 March 2021. The interactive dialogue will be live on UN Web TV. An unofficial Farsi translation of the report is also available.
ENDS
Javaid Rehman is a Professor of International Human Rights Law and Muslim Constitutionalism at Brunel University, London. Mr Rehman teaches human rights law and Islamic law and continues to publish extensively in the subjects of international human rights law, Islamic law and constitutional practices of Muslim majority States. Several of his published works have been translated into various languages. As a human rights lawyer, Mr Rehman has also provided legal opinions in various high-profile cases in a number of jurisdictions.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
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Iran: increased executions are a manifestation of the regime’s impasse
Iran, February 20, 2021—On Wednesday, Iranian authorities executed seven prisoners in Gohardasht prison, Karaj. Among the executed prisoners was a 42-year-old mother of two. On Monday, February 15, the regime carried out two other executions in Birjand. Two days earlier, a prisoner was hanged in Meshginshahr. Therefore, in only five days, the Iranian regime has executed at least ten prisoners across Iran. It is worth noting that the regime carries out many executions in secret, and the real number of executions might be much higher. According to reports obtained from inside Iran, many prisoners have been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation of their execution.One might ask, why would the regime further exacerbate an already-tenuous situation for millions of Iranians who are faced with poverty, unemployment, unpaid wages, skyrocketing prices, and rampant inflation. The people already have much to deal with. Why add to their suffering with a sudden spike in executions?
The reason is that, in fact, the regime already knows that Iran’s society is in a state of turmoil and on the verge of explosion. Instead of responding to the just demands of the people, it aims to further intimidate the public and prevent the eruption of nationwide protests by ratcheting up its repressive measures. Signs of this strategy have been seen as the regime has increased executions, arrests and persecution of political activists, and public display of force and violence by its security forces.
At the same time, the regime is faced with growing international pressure to address human rights conditions in Iran. But it knows that if it stops torture and executions for a single day, it will be swept away by the millions of angry Iranians whose rage it has only kept in check through sheer brutality. That is why by ramping up executions, the regime is sending a signal to the international community that this is a red line it is not willing to cross.
The regime’s dependence of violence can be seen in remarks made by its officials and analysts.
During a convention of the Provincial Judiciary Council on December 28, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi called on judges to be “political” in their decision-making and to “have an evaluation of the situation,” to “understand the necessities of the society,” and to give verdicts that “are proportionate to the situation.” And the example he gave the judges was the regime’s slain terror master Qassem Soleimani, whom he described as “being very able in knowing the situation and understanding the needs.”
Therefore, in stark contrast to all the known and respected principles that call for the separation of judicial processes from political considerations, Raisi clearly instructed judges to give their verdicts based on the political needs of the regime.
Even more outrageous than Raisi’s remarks were those of Qassem Rezai, the deputy chief of the State Security Forces, who openly told his subordinate commanders, “If you arrest someone in a clash and I see him standing here healthy and sound, you’ll have a lot to answer for.” Rezai’s comments were aired on national television on January 1.
The necessities and conditions that Raisi referred to in his remarks are being amply discussed by analysts on state-run media these days.
On February 14, the state-run Mardom Salari daily reported that the “food poverty line per individual” has reached 6.7 million rials and warned, “If the economic situation doesn’t change and continues to worsen, we will problems in the society… and these problems will gradually turn into chaos and will engulf all classes of the society.” By chaos, Mardom Salari was referring to widespread protests such as the November 2019 nationwide uprising, which brought the regime to its knees and on the verge of collapse.
On February 15, the government-run Iran newspaper reported that inflation is destroying the lives of the low-income and middle classes of the society and warned, “This trend is polarizing the society, and the results, such as insecurity and riots, will encompass everyone in the society.”
These are just two examples of the many warnings by the regime’s own officials that Iran is on the verge of another revolution and the people are fed up with the regime. Therefore, the sudden increase in executions is the regime’s temporary response to the explosive state of the society. Plagues by corruption, the ruling mullahs don’t have an answer to the problems of the people. At the same time, they know that the deterioration of the economic conditions will only increase the likelihood of another round of nationwide protests happening soon. Therefore, their only answer is to further intimidate the public by ratcheting up executions and violence. But they also know that by doing so, they will further increase public hatred of their rule. Therefore, they are caught in an impasse that will, sooner or later, result in their ultimate downfall.
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Political Prisoners Denied Medical Care in Iran
One of the longest detained political prisoners in Iran is suffering from severe and painful burns on his neck and back after being suddenly covered in boiling water whilst taking a shower, but the prison authorities refused to take him to the hospital, which has led to the infection of the blisters.Gholam-Hossein Kalbi, 61, who has now spent 21 years in prison, was arrested in January 2000 in Dezful. He was held in solitary confinement for 14 months in Ahvaz’s Ministry of Intelligence building and subject to brutal torture before being sentenced to life in prison in 2002 and moved to Ward 209 of Evin Prison.
Kalbi, who is currently held in Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, is also suffering from a variety of health complaints, including severe infections in his gums and both ears, alongside hearing loss in one ear.
We urged the United Nations and all human rights defenders to take immediate action to ensure that Kalbi receives medical treatment for his burns and illnesses outside or prison, stating that the denial of necessary medical care indicates “the intentional nature of the incident designed to torture him”.
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Iran: Baluchi man faces imminent execution despite urgent need for a fair retrial
The Iranian authorities must immediately halt the execution of Javid Dehghan, a member of Iran’s disadvantaged Baluchi
ethnic minority, scheduled to take place in less than 48 hours on 30 January 2021, Amnesty International said in a
statement today. Highlighting a shocking catalogue of fair trial violations throughout the investigation, trial and appeal
stages, the organization urged the Iranian authorities to quash the death sentence of the 31-year-old man and grant his
lawyer’s request for a fair retrial.
Javid Dehghan, held in the central prison in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, was sentenced to death for
“enmity against God” (moharebeh) in May 2017 in connection with his alleged membership in an armed group and
alleged involvement in an armed ambush that killed two Revolutionary Guards agents, following a grossly unfair trial
before Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Zahedan. In convicting and sentencing Javid Dehghan to death, the court
relied on torture-tainted “confessions” and ignored the serious due process abuses committed by Revolutionary Guards
agents and prosecution authorities during the investigation process.
According to information obtained by Amnesty International from two informed sources, following his arrest in Iranshahr,
Sistan and Baluchestan province, on 5 June 2015, the authorities concealed Javid Dehghan’s fate and whereabouts from
his family for three months, thereby subjecting him and his family to the international crime of enforced disappearance.
During this period, his anxious family went to various hospitals, prisons and police stations and reached out to numerous
intelligence, prosecution and judicial officials in Iranshahr to obtain information about him, but the authorities did not give
them any information and denied that he was in state custody.
The first time that Javid Dehghan’s family heard from him was three months after his arrest when he called them briefly to
tell them that he was in a general ward in Zahedan prison, and it emerged that prior to that, he had been held in solitary
confinement in an undisclosed detention facility run by the Revolutionary Guards. For the next 12 or 13 months, he was
periodically taken back and forth between Zahedan prison and an undisclosed detention facility where he has said he was
held in solitary confinement and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. The first time that he was allowed a visit with
his family was around a week after he called them from Zahedan prison.
According to information obtained by Amnesty International, methods of torture described by Javid Dehghan included
beatings, floggings, pulling out at least one of his thumb’s nails and stripping him naked.
During his trial, Javid Dehghan told the court that while held in solitary confinement, Revolutionary Guards agents
repeatedly tortured him to “confess” that he was a member of an armed Jihadist group, Jaish ul-Adl, and that he had
fatally shot two Revolutionary Guards agents during an ambush on 9 April 2015. Amnesty International understands that
Javid Dehghan “confessed” under duress that he was a member of the armed group, but never accepted that he was in
possession of weapons and involved in the fatal ambush. His persistent refusal to “confess” to these aspects of the case
opened against him resulted in him languishing in solitary confinement for months.
The authorities’ evidence against Javid Dehghan ultimately consisted primarily of the torture-tainted incriminating
statements that the Revolutionary Guards agents obtained both from him regarding his alleged membership in Jaish ulAdl, which he later retracted in court, and five co-defendants regarding his alleged involvement in plotting and carrying
out the 2015 ambush. No investigation is known to have been carried out into the coercive circumstances, including the
allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, through which these incriminating statements were extracted.
Amnesty International’s research shows that Javid Dehghan’s right, under both international law and Iranian law, to have
a meaningful review of his conviction and sentence by a higher court has also been violated. Based on information,
including documentary evidence, obtained by the organization, on 29 July 2017 the Supreme Court stated in a ruling
Amnesty International Public Statement
www.amnesty.org
2
consisting of only a few lines that it had not received an appeal submission from Javid Dehghan and was not, therefore,
under an obligation to examine the case. This is while the information recorded in Javid Dehghan’s casefile indicates that
he had requested an appeal after he had been informed of his death sentence in May 2017. It is not clear to Amnesty
International if Javid Dehghan’s court-appointed lawyer had submitted a detailed appeal for him that subsequently went
missing, or that the lawyer had failed to submit a detailed request in the first place.
In either case, given the litany of due process abuses committed during the investigation process and ignored at the trial
stage without an investigation, the Supreme Court had a duty to review substantively, both on the basis of sufficiency of
the evidence and of the law, the conviction and sentence and ensure that a conviction and sentence following violations of
the accused’s rights to a fair trial do not become final.
Amnesty International is concerned that the Supreme Court also rejected a subsequent judicial review request submitted
by Javid Dehghan’s new lawyer in December 2020, which documented the major flaws marring the judicial process
leading to Javid Dehghan’s conviction and death sentence.
Javid Dehghan’s lawyer was formally informed on 25 January 2021 that the Supreme Court had denied the judicial review
request. His lawyer reported on his Twitter account that he was planning to submit a second request next week but, on 28
January 2021, he learned that the authorities have scheduled the execution of Javid Dehghan for 30 January 2021 and
called his family to go to prison for their last visit.
Amnesty International has received information indicating that the Revolutionary Guards have been exercising undue
influence over the prosecution and judicial authorities to carry out Javid Dehghan’s execution, despite an urgent need for
a fair and impartial review of his case.
Under international law, the imposition of the death penalty following an unfair trial constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of
the right to life and violates the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Amnesty International urges the Iranian authorities not to compound the shocking catalogue of human rights violations
already committed against Javid Dehghan by carrying out his execution. All plans to execute him must be immediately
halted and he must be granted a fair retrial.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the
characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is a violation of the
right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.