Tag: death penalty in iran

Married Couple Executed in Qazvin Prison on Drug-Related Charges

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Executions, Prisoners, Women
citizen executions per-capita, Citizens executed, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Pirastvan, secret execution, Secret executions, Yousef Pirastvan

On May 30, two prisoners were executed in Qazvin prison on drug-related charges.

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mr. Yousef Pirastvan and Ms. Pirastvan (first name unknown) were a married couple at the time of their arrest.

An informed source said that Mr. and Ms. Pirastvan were arrested 7-8 years ago on the Qazvin-Karaj highway on charges of carrying 380 kilograms of drugs and were sentenced to death in their first court session.

According to international organizations, Iran ranks first in the world in citizen executions per-capita. The Statistics and Publication Center of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) reported that between January 1st and  December 20th of 2020, at least 236 citizens were executed. One of these citizens was executed publicly, and two were juvenile offenders. An additional 95 citizens were sentenced to death.

More than 72% of executions in Iran are not reported by the government or the judiciary. Human rights organizations call these “secret executions.”

At the time of writing, their execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Three sentenced to Death in Tehran Under Qisas (Eye-for-an-Eye) Principle of Shariah Law

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Executions, Prisoners
Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Death sentence, iran death penalty, Qisas, Shariah Law, Tehran

In two isolated incidents, three citizens were sentenced to death in Tehran, all on charges of murder.

According to the HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, quoting Rokna news,  death sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court for two defendants who were sentenced under the Qisas (loosely translated as eye-for-an-eye) principle of Shariah Law.

The sentence was issued after 37-year-old Meysam, a shopkeeper, was stabbed to death in Varamin in Tehran.

In a separate incident, according to the Javanonline News, a defendant was sentenced to death for murder under the Qisas principle by the criminal court in Tehran province.

The victim’s wife and two murder suspects, all suspected of orchestrating the killing, were also sentenced to prison time.

 

 

Narges Mohammadi Sentenced to 30 Additional Months in Prison, Flogging, and Fines

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Freedom of Expression, Prisoners, Women
Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Evin Prison, Mohammadi, Narges Mohammadi, Political Prisoner, unfair trial, Women's Ward of Evin Prison, Zanjan Prison

On May 19, less than a year after completing a five year sentence and being released from Zanjan Prison, human rights activist Narges Mohammadi was sentenced by Branch 1177 of the Criminal Court in the Quds Judicial Complex in Tehran to 30 more months in prison, 80 lashes, and two fines.

In March, HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, reported that Narges Mohammadi had published an open letter in response to her latest summons to the Evin Courthouse.

“I have not attended any hearing,” Mohammadi said in the letter. “I will not accept the verdict issued by the court and I definitely will disobey.”

According to HRANA, Mohammadi is facing a slew of protest-related charges, including “Propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran through the issuance of a statement against the death penalty”,  “Sit-down strike in the prison office”, “Breaking glass”, “Libel and assault”, and “Rebelling against the prison administration who asked to end the sit-down strike”.

In December 2019, Mohammadi and seven other political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison announced in a letter that they would go on a sit-down strike in support of bereaved families who lost loved ones in November 2019 national protests. Evin Prison officials threatened to deport Mohammadi and others who participated in the strike to prisons known for their harsher conditions. She was transferred from Evin Prison to Zanjan Prison in December 2019.

After five years and six months in prison, Narges Mohammadi was finally released from Zanjan in October 2020. Mohammadi has since been denied a passport and barred from leaving the country to visit her husband and children even though her previous conviction did not mention a supplementary ban on international travel.

Whether Mohammadi’s latest sentence is carried out given her refusal to accept the charges remains to be seen.

Prisoner Executed in Yazd

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Executions
Ardakan prison, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Execution, iran death penalty, Sami Mohtarami, Yazd

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Prisoner Sami Mohtarami, 43, was executed in Ardakan Prison on the morning of Saturday, November 3, 2018.

An informed source confirmed the news of his death to HRANA. “The victim’s family had agreed to absolve him if he could pay the blood money, but he wasn’t able to,” the source said. “He was transferred to solitary confinement on Thursday, November 1, 2018, two nights before his execution.”

Convicted of murdering someone while stealing a car, Mohtarami had been detained in Ardakan Prison since 2015. He previously served a five-year sentence in Ardakan on drug-related charges.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. On the World Day against the Death Penalty (October 10th), the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) published its annual report, indicating that at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.

Ardakan is located in the central district of Ardakan County, Yazd Province.

Judiciary Bounces Homicide Defendant Back to Gallows

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Executions
capital punishment iran, Davoud Mir Hosseini, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, iran death penalty

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- The Iranian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Davoud Mir Hosseini, a 42-year-old married man accused of murder.

First arrested in 2014, Mir Hosseini has been detained in Nishapur, in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan, ever since.

Mir Hosseini must now square off with the same anguishing fatality he once lawfully escaped: the Supreme Court previously reversed the death sentence issued to him in Nishapur Public Court Branch 3, but when the would-be closed case was forwarded to a parallel appeals court in 2017, authorities ruled back in favor of capital punishment. As announced by Mir Hosseini’s lawyer last week, the Supreme Court has moved to uphold it.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. According to registered data from the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.

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Ardabil Prisoner Hanged to Death

Posted on by Sara
Executions, Prisoners
Ardabil, ardabil prison, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Execution, executions, executions in iran, iran death penalty, Meysam Saber, Prisoner abuse

Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) – Twenty-seven-year-old Meysam Saber, a prisoner in the Health Ward of Ardabil Prison, was executed in the early morning hours of Sunday, October 21, 2018.

Saber had been detained on murder charges since 2013. He was reportedly transferred to solitary confinement on the eve of his execution.

Saber was the subject of a HRANA report on prisoner abuse last year when he was chained to the bars of the Quarantine Ward for 24 straight hours for complaining about mistreatment by prison guards.

By carrying out Saber’s hanging in silence, authorities — particularly the Judiciary — demonstrate a continued pattern of obfuscation on the topic of prisoner sentencing and executions, in spite of their responsibilities of informing the public.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. On the World Day against the Death Penalty (October 10th), the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) published its annual report, indicating that at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.

Zahedan Prisoner Hanged to Death

Posted on by Sara
Executions, Prisoners
Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, Execution, iran death penalty, Secret executions, Zahedan, Zahedan Prison

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Thirty-one-year-old Mehdi Mirshekar from Zabol, eastern Iran was executed on the morning of Saturday, October 20, 2018.

A prisoner of Zahedan’s Ward 7, Mirshekar had been in prison for six years on a rape charge. Per protocol for prisoners whose execution is imminent, he was reportedly transferred to solitary confinement on the evening of Monday, October 15th.

By carrying out this hanging in silence, authorities — particularly the Judiciary — demonstrate a continued pattern of obfuscation on the topic of prisoner sentencing and executions, in spite of their responsibilities of informing the public.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. On the World Day against the Death Penalty (October 10th), the Center of Statistics at Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) published its annual report, indicating that at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.

Prisoner in Shirvan Sentenced to Death

Posted on by Sara
Executions, Prisoners
Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, iran death penalty, Taleb Gohavi

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)– Branch 2 of the Shirvan Prosecutor’s Office announced on Tuesday, October 16th that Taleb Govahi, a defendant on a murder case who has been detained in Shirvan Prison since the crime, has been sentenced to death.

An informed source told to HRANA that Gohavi, a 40-year old married resident of Shirvan county, North Khorasan province, was convicted of killing a car dealer in a 2016 skirmish. “He has denied at all stages of his trial that the murder was premeditated, and claimed he was defending himself against the victim, who also had a cold weapon.”

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. According to registered data from the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.

Open Letter from Prisoners to UN Envoy: Death Penalty is a “Weapon of Terror”

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Executions, Prisoners
Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, iran death penalty, iran political prisoners, javaid rehman, open letter, Rajai Shahr Prison, un special rapporteur on iran

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- On Wednesday, October 3, 2018, a letter was published to the attention of Javaid Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran. Its authors were reaching out from the walls of Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj, on the western outskirts of Tehran, to raise the specter of rising execution numbers and public hangings that still mar the face of the country.

The full text of their letter, translated into English by HRANA, is below:

Javaid Rehman
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Dear Mr. Rehman,

The death penalty is not simply a social predicament for us Iranians; it is a living nightmare. We live it and re-live it in the faces of children who witness public hangings, and in the faces of prisoners on death row. In the past few weeks alone, our fellow prisoners Mohammad Salas, Zanyar Moradi, Loghman Moradi, and Ramin Hossein Panahi were executed. Our families used to see each other during weekly visits. This time around, the visit was transformed to a day of mourning – further proof that the death penalty, a medieval legacy of human societies, is a collective punishment. With all of the shock and mental anguish that their executions put our families through, one can only imagine how the families of the victims are feeling.

[The aftereffects of] the death penalty are not the lot of political prisoners alone; every death-row prisoner feels them. The whole of society bears their cruelty.  The efforts of Special Human Rights Rapporteurs, particularly the late Asma Jilani Jahangir [Rapporteur between 2016 and 2018], who helped abolish the death penalty for drug-related offenses, are admirable. However, the widespread nature of executions calls for more drastic and concrete measures. Especially in today’s Iran, capital punishment is not simply a legal apparatus, but also a political weapon of terror used to suppress citizens expressing discontent with Iran’s economic, political, and social conditions.

We political prisoners believe that Iranian people will not be freed from this inhumane punishment without a serious international intervention. In our view, the economic and diplomatic needs of the Iranian regime are the ideal starting place for negotiations with authorities to put an end to capital punishment. We beseech you, as the Special Rapporteur, to ask the international community to make their dealings and diplomatic ties with the Iranian regime contingent on abolishing the death penalty and respecting human rights principles in Ian.

We thank you, in advance, for your efforts.

Sincerely,

1- Mohammad Amirkhizi
2- Majid Asadi
3. Payam Shakiba
4- Hassan Sadeghi
5- Arash Sadeghi
6. Abul Qassim Pulat
7- Abraham Firoozi
8- Mohammad Ali Mansouri
9- Saeed Masoori

CC: World Coalition against the Death Penalty (www.worldcoalition.org)

Zahedan Appeals Court Ups Prison Sentence into Capital Punishment

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Executions, Prisoners
Abdolhamid Mirbaluchzehi, Alireza Bampouri, Death Penalty, death penalty in iran, iran death penalty, Javid Dehghan, Mahmud Kalkali, Omid Imani

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – Zahedan Appeals Court has increased the 15-year prison sentence of Ward-4 Zahedan prisoner Abdolhamid Mirbaluchzehi to the death penalty. The final appeals verdict also upheld the capital punishment sentence of his co-defendant Javid Dehghan.

Both were initially tried in Branch 1 of Zahedan Revolutionary Court on charges of acting against national security and Moharebeh [enmity against God] in connection to an armed attack on police.

According to a close source, the fifteen-year prison sentences of co-defendants Mahmoud Kalkali, Omid Imani, and Alireza Bampouri — who did not request an appeal — were finalized “long ago.”

The charges of all defendants were reportedly prepared after their torture in a Ministry of Intelligence detention center in Zahedan, where according to a source they were “stripped naked, flogged,[…] disparaged and humiliated.”