February 24, 2006
Amnesty International
Public Statement
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130192006
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.
AI Index: MDE 13/019/2006 24 February 2006
