Iran Executed 26 Prisoners In 10 Days
As an instrument of harassment, Iran’s judiciary courts have been extremely busy with execution orders carrying out 26 executions in the span of just ten days. According to reports, at least 26 people, including two women, were executed from May 17 to 27 in 11 Iranian provinces. Seven of the executed men were Baluchi citizens — an ethnic minority making up five percent of the population — and were sentenced to death on “drug-related” charges.
The clerical regime hanged 12 inmates in Kermanshah, Ilam, Birjand, Ardabil, Khalkhal, Ahvaz, Isfahan, and Amol prisons from June 7 to June 9. Twelve prisoners from the Baluch minority were sent to the gallows in Zahedan Prison on June 6.
On Tuesday, June 7, two members of the Arab minority, Majid Amouri and Qadir Naseri were executed in Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz in southwestern Iran. Majid Amouri, 25, from Ramshir, resisted regime agents in 2018 when his brother was being arrested, killing an officer of the security forces. Qadir Naseri, 23, resisted an attack by the regime’s agents against his residence in Mahshahr on June 20, 2016, when he was 17 leading to the death of two security forces. On the same day, an inmate named Ahmad Baranzehi was hanged in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.
On Thursday, Doroud Yousef Beigi in Kermanshah prison, Javad Amini in Amol prison, and on Wednesday three other prisoners named Sattar Arghandeh, Khosrow Tarak, and Kamal Bayani in Ilam prison were sent to the gallows. Sattar Arghandeh and Khosrow Tark had been in prison for 18 and 7 years respectively.
Moreover, a Baluch prisoner named Mohammad Reza Naroui in Birjand Prison, two prisoners named Hojjat Asyabani and Sajjad Takravi in Ardabil Prison, and one prisoner named Asghar (Hamid) Habibi in Khalkhal Prison were hanged on Wednesday. Asghar Habibi had spent 10 years in prison.
Human rights activists and political analysts believe that by increasing the number of executions, Tehran is attempting to instill fear and intimidate Iranians, warning them that any opposition will be harshly dealt with.
UN offers its concerns on the deteriorating state of human rights in Iran
Calling almost all executions in Iran an arbitrary deprivation of life, a UN human rights expert has urged the country to reform its laws to end the imposition of the death penalty in violation of international law.
“There are extensive, vague, and arbitrary grounds in Iran for imposing the death sentence, which quickly can turn this punishment into a political tool,” Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the UN General Assembly in delivering his fourth annual report.
“In addition, the structural flaws of the justice system are so deep and at odds with the notion of rule of law that one can barely speak of a justice system,” he said. “The entrenched flaws in law and in the administration of the death penalty in Iran mean that most, if not all, executions are an arbitrary deprivation of life.”
International community must adhere to its obligations toward human rights
The state of civil and political liberties in a country is intricately related to its foreign policies; strengthening the former will facilitate the latter, producing more constructive foreign policies. It will not be an easy task, but it must start now if there is any hope of bringing peace and stability to the Middle East. A new policy toward Iran with human rights as one of its major pillars should adhere to four broad guiding principles. The nuclear crisis and geopolitical conflicts will find a long-term solution only when the international community, and in particular the US government, recognize the urgency of the Iranian people’s basic civil liberties and their voice in determining their government’s domestic and foreign policies. Thus, the new U.S. policy towards Iran must finally integrate human-rights concerns on their own merit and give them priority on par with other critical security issues.
