Human rights teams, together with the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists Information Company (HRANA) and the Middle for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), additionally confirmed the execution of not less than two dozen individuals in Karaj. File | Photograph credit score: Reuters
Iran hanged not less than 29 convicts in a single day on Wednesday (7 August 2024), together with 26 in a gaggle execution at a jail, a rights group mentioned, a day after going through worldwide condemnation for executing a person in reference to the 2022 protests.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group reported that 26 males had been executed at Ghezelhesar jail in Karaj, outdoors Tehran, whereas three males had been executed on the jail within the metropolis of Karaj.
Learn additionally: Iran condemns UN consultants’ report on 2022 protests
These executed, together with two Afghan nationals, had been convicted of homicide, drug offences and rape.
Different human rights teams, together with the US-based Human Rights Activists Information Company (HRANA) and the Middle for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), additionally confirmed the execution of not less than two dozen individuals in Karaj.
Human rights teams have repeatedly accused Iran, which they are saying executes extra individuals yearly than every other nation besides China, of utilizing the loss of life penalty on all prices to instill worry in society following the 2022 protests.
“With out a right away response from the worldwide group, tons of of individuals may grow to be victims of the Islamic Republic’s extermination equipment within the coming months,” mentioned Iran Human Rights (IHR) Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
The IHR famous {that a} collective execution of this scale was unprecedented in recent times in Iran, with the final comparable instance courting again to 2009.
‘Abominable arbitrary execution’
Rights teams additionally condemned Iran’s execution of a person convicted of killing a Revolutionary Guard throughout protests in 2022, with activists saying his confession had been obtained below torture.
Gholamreza Rasaei, aged in his 30s, was the tenth man executed by Iran in reference to the months-long protests that erupted in September 2022 following the loss of life in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been arrested for allegedly violating the nation’s strict gown code for girls.
Rasaei was hanged in jail within the western metropolis of Kermanshah on Tuesday after being discovered responsible of killing the Guard colonel, based on the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan On-line web site.
Rasaei, a member of the Kurdish ethnic minority and a follower of the Yarsan religion, was secretly executed with out warning his household or lawyer and his household was later compelled to bury his physique in a distant space removed from their residence, Amnesty Worldwide mentioned.
“The Iranian authorities have carried out the abhorrent secret arbitrary execution of a younger man who was tortured and in any other case ill-treated in detention… after which sentenced to loss of life after a sham trial,” mentioned Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for the Center East and North Africa.
He mentioned the execution was one other instance of how Iran makes use of the loss of life penalty as a “instrument of political repression to instill worry among the many inhabitants.”
Amnesty mentioned his loss of life sentence was handed down in October 2023 “after a grossly unfair trial that relied on his compelled ‘confessions’ obtained below torture and different ill-treatment, together with beatings, electrical shocks, suffocation and sexual violence.”
‘Unfair and inhumane’
France’s International Ministry on Wednesday condemned Rasaei’s execution and reiterated its “unwavering opposition to the loss of life penalty in every single place and circumstances,” calling it an “unjust and inhuman punishment.”
The workplace of U.S. Deputy Particular Envoy for Iran Abram Paley accused Iran of subjecting protesters to “sham trials and compelled confessions.”
IHR mentioned Rasaei had advised the courtroom that the confessions had been obtained below torture, however the choose ignored this and likewise dismissed two skilled testimonies, together with a forensic report, that argued he couldn’t have been behind the killing.
The IHR mentioned Iran has executed not less than 345 individuals this yr alone, including that the most recent executions present there was no decline in the usage of the loss of life penalty since reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian took workplace final week.
Amiry-Moghaddam mentioned Iran was “exploiting” world consideration on tensions between Iran and its arch-enemy Israel by “mass killing prisoners and intensifying repression in Iran.”
