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Amnesty International
today expressed grave concern about the rate of executions reported in
Iran and said it feared for the lives of a number of political prisoners, some
of whom are reported to have been on death row for several years. The
organization is also outraged that Iran continues to sentence child offenders to
death in contravention of its international human rights
obligations.
Executions in Iran continue at an alarming rate. Amnesty
International recorded 94 executions in 2006, although the true figure is likely
to be much higher. So far in 2006, it has recorded as many as 28 executions.
Most of the victims were sentenced for crimes such as murder but one
of those recently executed was a political prisoner, Hojjat Zamani, a
member of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), who was
abducted from Turkey in 2003 and sentenced to death in 2004 after
conviction of involvement in a bomb explosion in Tehran in 1988 which killed 3
people (See Urgent Actions AI Index EUR 44/025/2003, 5 November 2003 and MDE
13/032/2004). He was taken from his cell in Gohar Dasht prison and executed on 7
February 2006, though his execution was officially confirmed by Iranian
officials only on 21 February.
Hojjat Zamani's execution has
fuelled fears that other political prisoners may be at risk of imminent
execution. According to unconfirmed reports that have been circulating
since early February, a number of political and other prisoners who
are under sentence of death have been told by prison officials that they
would be executed if Iran should be referred to the UN Security
Council over the resumption of its nuclear programmed (which Iran claims is
intended solely for the peaceful production of nuclear energy). These are said
to have included other members of the PMOI, which is an illegal
organization in Iran. It was the PMOI that was the source of
evidence in 2002 revealing Iran's nuclear programme to the outside
world.
Among those feared to be at risk are Sa'id Masouri
(See Urgent Action AI Index MDE 13/018/2002), a PMOI member who has been held in
solitary confinement in Section 209 of Evin Prison since late 2004;
Khaled Hardani, Farhang Pour Mansouri and Shahram Pour
Mansouri (See Urgent Action AI Index: MDE 13/003/2005), all three of
whom were involved in hijacking a plane in 2001 when Shahram Pour Mansouri was
aged only 17; Gholamhossein Kalbi and Valiollah Feyz
Mahdavi, both PMOI members, and Alireza Karami
Khairabadi.
Amnesty International has also received reports that at
least two Iranian Arabs may be facing imminent execution. The province of
Khuzestan has been the centre of wide scale unrest since 15 April 2005 (For
further information on the unrest in Khuzestan province, see Iran: New
Government fails to address dire human rights situation AI Index MDE
13/010/2006). Mohammad Ali Sawari and Mehdi Nawaseri, both said to be in their
early twenties, have reportedly been sentenced to death. Mohammad Ali Sawari was
arrested following demonstrations in Ahwaz City on 4 November 2005. Mehdi
Nawaseri was arrested in October 2005, after previously having been detained in
April 2005 and subsequently released.
On 14 February 2006, Jamal
Karimi-Rad, Minister of Justice and Spokesman for the Judiciary, told the news
agency IRNA that seven of the 45 people arrested in connection with bomb
explosions in September and October 2005 had been convicted on charges including
"enmity with God, corruption on earth and murder" and that their sentences would
be announced shortly. The penalty for enmity against God and corruption on earth
can be execution, cross amputation, crucifixion for three days, or banishment.
On 20 February 2006, the Prosecutor General Ghorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi was
reported as stating "some of the convicted in this case have received
execution verdict, including the two main culprits, whose presence in the recent
Ahvaz incidents was proved and their execution verdict is definitive". On 21
February, in a statement to IRNA commenting on this report, Jamal Karimi-Rad
stated that only two had been sentenced to death and these were
under review by the Supreme Court. He noted that "the crimes committed by
all the seven convicts do not call for the death sentence". Amnesty
International fears that Mohammad Ali Sawari and Mehdi Nawaseri may be the two
referred to and may be at imminent risk of execution.
Amnesty
International is also outraged that Iran has sentenced yet another child
offender to death. According to reports carried by two Iranian news
agencies, Fars, and the Iran Students Correspondents Asscociation (ISCA), an
18-year-old youth, identified only as Mohammad, was sentenced to death by Branch
71 of the Tehran Criminal Court for a murder he committed in August 2003 when he
was aged only 16. According to these reports, he had originally been tried by
the Childrens' Court and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and payment of
blood money. However, the family of the victim reportedly complained that the
sentence was insufficiently severe and the Supreme Court decided that as
Mohammad had now reached 18, he could be tried in the Criminal Court, which
resulted in his death sentence. The death sentence must be ratified by the
Supreme Court before it can be carried out.
On 18 February 2006, IRNA is
said to have reported Ahmad Mozaffari, a judge in Tehran's Appeal Court,
as stating that Iran will continue to sentence child offenders
to death "without considering other options".
As a state party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Iran has undertaken not to execute anyone for
an offence committed when they were under the age of 18. Nevertheless, Amnesty
International has recorded 18 executions of child offenders in Iran since 1990.
In 2005 alone, at least eight executions of child offenders were
recorded
Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities
of governments to bring to justice those suspected of committing recognizably
criminal offences, but the organization is unconditionally opposed to the use of
the death penalty as the ultimate violation of the right to life. It therefore
urges the Iranian authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of
the death penalty and to abide by its international obligations not to execute
anyone for an offence committed when they were a
child.
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