Monthly report on the violation of human rights in Iran from June 20 to July 20, 2021
24-July-2021
Category: executions، Freedom of Expression، Prisoners
24-July-2021
Newsgroup: Freedom of Expression – Execution – Prisoners –
Execution of at least 34 prisoners
Arrest of more than 90 civil, ideological and political activists in various cities
Issuance/confirmation of at least 127 years, 11 months and 18 days of imprisonment for civil rights activists, religious minorities, labor and human rights activists
Breathing in Confinement: After the sham presidential election and the appointment of Ibrahim Raeisi (a member of Death Committee in the summer of 1988), the number of executions and detentions has significantly increased.
In addition, the incompetence and negligence of the responsible authorities in Iran has caused the country to enter the fifth wave of COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-July, it turned out that women political prisoners in Evin Prison have captured Covid-19. Alieh Motalebzadeh, Sepideh Kashani, Zeinab Hamrang, Arezoo Ghasemi, Zahra Jamali and Mojgan Kavousi were sent on sick leave following being tested positive for Covid-19. Reports from the women’s ward indicate that a number of prison guards also have contracted Coronavirus. Mariam Claren reported that her 61-year-old mother Nahid Taghavi, the dual-national prisoner, also has contracted Covid-19 and is being held in prison quarantine. She expressed concern over her mother’s condition.
The situation of human rights in Iran has worsened in recent weeks.
According to the Statistics Center of “Breathing in Confinement”, the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the number of executions has increased in July.
In the last one month, at least 34 prisoners have been hanged in various prisons across the country. From March 20 to July 20, at least 87 prisoners were executed. Which indicates that compared to previous months, the number of executions has sharply increased over the last one month, making it the highest number of executions recorded over one month period, in the current Iranian year.
The Iranian government reduced the number of executions in the run-up to the presidential election, but significantly increased it afterward.
Among those executed were a 70-year-old prisoner charged with murder, as well as a prisoner who was a child when charged with the alleged crime.
The 70-year-old prisoner who was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, was executed in Mashhad prison.
And the child-defendant, who was less than 16 at the time of the alleged crime, was hanged in Urmia Prison.
Iran is the only country in the world that, despite being a member of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, uses the death penalty for child offenders (people who were under 18 at the time of the crime).
Of the 34 prisoners executed in the past one month, 19 prisoners were executed on murder charges, 13 on drug charges and 2 on charge of rape. Executions of drug offenders take place three years after the new drug law was passed and enacted in 2017. Under the new law, the implementation of death penalty for many drug-related cases was supposed to be banned.
The executions took place in the cities of Zanjan, Rasht, Isfahan, Urmia, Mashhad, Karaj, Jiroft, Shiraz, Zahedan, Salmas, Qom, Mahabad and Maragheh.
The highest rate of executions belonged to Isfahan where 8 prisoners accused of drug-related charges were hanged (23%).
This month, the death sentence of a prisoner was overturned ten months after he had been executed in Urmia Prison. Khedr Ghavidel, was executed on September 10, 2020, while his case was pending before the Supreme Court.
In the past month, at least nine death sentences have been issued or upheld. The death sentences of two political prisoners, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrullah Fazeli Zare, accused of “Sab al-Nabi” (blasphemy), were upheld by the Supreme Court. These two prisoners had previously been arrested along with nine others because of running a Telegram Channel named “Critique of Superstition and Religion”. The two prisoners were notified of their death sentences in Arak Prison on April 22, 2021. And their sentences were finally upheld by the Supreme Court in mid-July.
Over the last one month at least 90 civil rights activists, human rights activists and religious minorities including Baha’is have been arrested.
In addition, more than 300 people have reportedly been arrested over the past one week during the uprisings in Khuzestan against water crisis.
Furthermore, a large number of citizens in Khuzestan were wounded or killed after security forces used live ammo against the protesters. In its latest report, the Amnesty International confirmed the use of “live ammunition and birdshot to crush Khuzestan protests.” Amnesty international confirmed that “security forces have killed at least eight protesters and bystanders, including a teenage boy.” According to local sources however, the death toll from the protests is much higher.
Concerns have escalated about the detainees and their detention conditions. Given the Islamic Republic’s history of torturing detainees, for example the torture of protesters detained in November 2019, immediate intervention of international organizations and the UN Human Rights Council is required to clarify the situation of detainees, as well as the number of protesters killed or wounded during the recent uprisings in Khuzestan.