Monthly report on human rights violations in Iran from April 20 to May 20, 2021
23-May-2021
Category: executions، Freedom of Expression، Prisoners
22-May-2021
Newsgroup: Freedom of Expression – Execution – Prisoners –
From April 20 to May 20, 2021
Execution of at least 13 prisoners and issuance of 3 death sentences
Detention of at least 195 civil, political, and social media activists
Sentencing 15 political and ideological activists to 99 years, 8 months and 6 days in prison, either by Courts of first instance or Courts of Appeal
Issuance of the sentences of at least 368 lashes
Breathing in Confinement: From April 20 to May 20, 2021, while Covid-19 has been continuously killing nearly 400 people every day, and when the Iranian people have been denied the slightest attention to protect their health and their lives, as well as any measures to prevent the spread of the disease, the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic have been continuing to violate their human rights.
According to the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the the Islamic Republic judiciary has executed at least 13 prisoners in various prisons by gallows. Also, during this 30-day period, 3 death sentences were issued, and the death sentence of at least one prisoner was upheld by the Supreme Court. In addition, at least 195 citizens have been detained by security forces.
Widespread arrests of Baha’i citizens in the cities of Shiraz and Baharestan in Isfahan have been accompanied by extensive searches of their homes and confiscation of their personal belongings.
On International Workers’ Day, at least 30 people were detained for participating in the protests, most of whom were released a few days later.
According to this report, 15 political or ideological activists were sentenced to a total of 99 years, 8 months, and 6 days in prison either by Courts of first instance or Courts of Appeal.
Six people have been sentenced to lashes, including two students detained by Revolutionary Guards during protests against downing the Ukrainian plane, who have been sentenced to 368 lashes, and four others, the CEO and three staff members of the Ardabil Bus Company, who have been sentenced to an unannounced number of lashes.
According to breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, during this one month period, at least five Baloch citizens were executed on drug charges in the Cities of Sabzevar, Dastgerd, Isfahan and Birjand. Among the executed prisoners, Amnesty International expressed concern over the execution of Mehdi Narouei for widespread violations of his human rights and the use of torture as well as intimidation for obtaining his confession, and called for a halt to his death sentence.
Death sentences related to drug-related charges are being enforced while the new Narcotics Crimes Law, the 2017 amendment, specifically restricts the issuance of death sentences for drug traffickers and generally supports one degree reduction in some cases.
Moreover, the death sentence of a 25-year-old man named Behzad Adl was carried out on Sunday, May 16, 2021, in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, while the whole process of his arrest and trial lasted only about 11 months based on which he was sentenced to three times death. Sources close to the executed young man said that the process of appealing his death sentence in the Supreme Court lasted only 18 days.
Simultaneously with Behzad Adl, three other prisoners were also executed on the same day, whose identities are being investigated by Breathing in Confinement.
Furthermore, over the past three months, three Balouch prisoners have been secretly executed in the city of Qaen.
Only two of the 13 executions were reported in the state media, and another 11 were secretly executed in various prisons and were revealed by human rights activists.
In the last 30 days, two people in Arak Prison have been sentenced to death by by Branch 1 of Arak Criminal Court for Sab al-Nabi (blasphemy).
During this period, the death sentence of Hamid Reza Amiri Sefat (Hamid Sefat), a Pop singer who had been sentenced to death for the murder of his stepfather, was overturned by the Supreme Court.
The judiciary of the Islamic Republic, led by Ibrahim Reisi, who is convicted of crimes against humanity for massacre of political prisoners in 1988, continues to commit gross human rights violations in Iran. Ibrahim Reisi, who as a member of death committee was responsible for the murder and execution of tens of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, has filed his nomination for the June 2021 presidential election in Iran.
The Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, while condemning all human rights violations committed by Iranian government, calls on the international community, human rights authorities, and UN reporters to urge the Islamic Republic authorities to abolish the death penalty, release the political prisoners, and to improve the human rights situation in Iran.