A Report on Human Rights Violations, Work Accidents, and Protest Rallies in the Past Month (April 20 – May 20, 2022)
27-May-2022
Category: executions، Prisoners، religious minorities، Teachers، Women
Breathing in Confinement: The Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran (Breathing in Confinement) publishes a report on human rights violations, work accidents, and protests rallies over the past month (April 20-May 20, 2022).
In the past month, the alarming increase in the issuance and execution of death sentences, along with the widespread and bloody crackdown of peaceful protests held against rising prices, have been examples of gross violations of human rights committed by the authorities of the Islamic Republic. Concurrently with widespread protests in several provinces against the government’s economic policies resulting in poor living conditions of the people, the authorities of the Islamic Republic cut off the Internet in these areas, an obvious violation of free access to the Internet and freedom of expression.
In the past month:
- At least 30 prisoners were executed
- Hundreds of political and trade union activists and protesters against rising prices were arrested
- At least 26 inhumane flogging sentences were either issued or carried out
- At least 98 workers were either injured or lost their lives in work-related accidents due to lack of safety measures
Executed death sentences:
In the past month, at least 30 prisoners were executed in Iran’s prisons, showing a 5-fold increase compared with previous month (in the previous month, at least six prisoners were executed).
The 30 executed prisoners were charged with “murder or drugs.” The highest number of executions carried out for “drug-related charges” with 19 cases, and 11 prisoners were executed for “murder”.
All executions took place in secret, except for only one prisoner whose execution for murder was reported in the state media quoting the Prosecutor’s Office in Sabzevar, without mentioning his name.
Two of the executed prisoners were child-accused who were under 18 at the time of the alleged crime. Farshad Gomshadzehi was executed in Zahedan Prison on May 14, on charges of murder. He was only 17 years old when allegedly committed a crime. Mehrab Sadeghi, another child-accused, was executed on May 15, in Yazd Prison. He was 16 years and 9 months old at the time of the alleged crime.
Despite widespread international protests against Islamic Republic’s non-compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the protests by the UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights, the authorities of the Islamic Republic continue to execute minors.
Among those executed was a woman in Zahedan Prison executed on May 7, 2022, whose name is yet to be known.
Last month’s executions took place in the prisons in Isfahan, Shiraz, Zahedan, Amol, Iranshahr, Yazd, Qom, Khorramabad, Mashhad, Sabzevar, Birjand and Karaj, with the highest rate belonged to the execution of Baluch citizens.
Issued death sentences:
At least two death sentences were issued last month. Dariush Rahimi was sentenced to death in public by the Criminal Court 1 in Khorasan Razavi for the murder of a police officer. This is the fourth case of the horrific and inhumane punishment of public hanging since the beginning of Persian year 1401 (from March 20, 2022). It should be noted that in recent years, one of the reasons that various UN entities condemned the Islamic Republic for human rights violations were the inhumane punishment of execution in public.
Detentions:
According to the information received by the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, during the past month, following the widespread of protests by various groups of people, more than 450 teachers, protesters, workers, political and trade union activists, and human rights activists were arrested.
During the nationwide protests held by working and retired teachers, security forces cracked down on protests and detained a large numbers of protesters and teachers. At least 193 working and retired teachers including 16 women were sent to prison. The teachers protested the government’s non-compliance with the full implementation of the ranking law as well as the law on equalization of salaries.
In addition, hundreds of people protesting against rising prices, either were attacked and arrested by police and security forces in their rallies or were arrested after security agents raided their homes or workplaces.
Unfortunately, the exact number of detainees is not known. According to the reports, more than 300 people have been arrested in Izeh, and more than 60 in Khorramabad. Furthermore, dozens of protesters were arrested in Gachsaran, Susangerd, Ahvaz, Farsan, Junaqan, etc. The names of 133 detainees from various cities have been identified by the Statistics Center of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran including 10 detainees in Junaqan.
On the eve of and following the International Workers ‘Day, at least 17 workers’ activists were arrested, including Parvin Abdullah Panah and Reyhaneh Ansari.
Reza Shahabi, a labor activist and a member of the board of directors of the Vahed Bus Company Trade Union, as well as more than 12 bus drivers of Vahed Company were arrested in Tehran.
Saeed Madani Ghahfarkhi, a researcher and university professor, as well as Keyvan Samimi, a political activist and member of the Iranian Writers’ Association, a former political prisoner and editor of Iran Farda magazine, were among the detainees in the past one month.
The issued prison sentences:
Only in the past month, the sentences of a total of 93 years, 1 month and 1 day of imprisonment, as well as fines and deprivation of social rights were issued in the cases of 25 political, civil, trade union activists religious minorities and Christian converts.
In addition, two elite students and medalists of the World Olympiads, Amir Hossein Moradi and Ali Younesi, were sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison.
Seven Kurdish citizens were each sentenced to two years in prison and a Christian convert also was sentenced to10 years in prison.
Twenty-four years imprisonment sentence of the civil activist, Saba Kordafshari was reduced to 5 months in prison by the Court of Appeals.
Labor activist Asal Mohammadi was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison and a journalist named Mahtab Gholizadeh was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months in prison. Eight other citizens also were arrested and sent to prison to serve their sentences.
Flogging sentences:
Flogging is one of the most inhumane sentences. It is an intimidating, degrading, and violent punishment which has nothing to do with the humanitarian standards of the modern world. The Islamic Republic, however, uses this punishment in a regular basis. Last month, flogging sentences were issued for 22 defendants and carried out for 4 financial accused in Langarud Prison.
Occupational accidents:
Because of the lack of standardization of technical and safety equipment, lack of training the workers and insufficient control by regulatory bodies, job safety in Iran is at a very low level and economic crisis has worsened this situation. According to a report released in 2016 by the International Labor Organization, Iran ranked 102nd out of 189 member countries in terms of work-related standards. Because of the abovementioned reasons, the situation is now likely to have fallen below this level.
Last month, at least 16 workers lost their lives in work-related accidents such as: falling into elevator shaft, well collapse, electric shock, roof collapse, etc. In addition, 82 workers were injured at their workplaces. Common to all accidents was the lack of safety measures and nonstandard technical equipment and working conditions. According to the Director General of Kermanshah Forensic Medicine, in the first month of this year (March20- April 20, 2022), only in this province, 3 workers died and 47 others were injured in work-related accidents.
Rallies and protests:
Last month, more than 385 protest rallies held by various groups of people. Since May 6, people in more than 49 cities in 11 provinces took to the streets and held 64 protest rallies against rising prices and rampant inflation. The protests followed the announcement of government policies to eliminate subsidies for flour and some other basic items, such as dairy products, poultries and eggs, which led to a sharp rise in prices. Security forces used tear gases, pellet bullets, water cannons and gunfire to suppress the protests killing at least six people.
Twenty-one-year-old Omid Soltani was killed in Andimeshk. Pishali Ghayebi Hajivand was shot dead in Dezful while he was sticking his head out of the window of his house. Hamid Ghasempour Farsani was shot in the head in Farsan. The protesters, Behrouz Eslami in Baba Haidar, Saadat Hadipour in Hafshjan, Jamshid Mokhtari in Junaqan were all shot dead. The condition of several wounded protesters has also been reported as critical.
In addition, last month, the employed and retired teachers staged the highest number of protest rallies, with more than 162 protest rallies held by this group of people. In many cities, security agents raided teachers and arrested some of them. For example, in Bushehr, Yasuj, Marivan, Tehran, Saqqez, Mashhad, Ahvaz and Arak, security agents, cracked down the protests and beat some of the teachers.
The main demands of teachers were the full implementation of the ranking law, the implementation of the law on equalization of pensions, the permanent employment of temporary employed staffs and the release of imprisoned teachers.
Last month, there were also 32 protests movements by workers, 28 by oil workers, and 27 by retirees. Other groups of people, including drivers, farmers, professors, health care workers, and … were also among the protesters.