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
2005, 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 1998 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.
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