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Thread: Iran Capital Punishment News

  1. #141
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    Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence for Juvenile Offender, Arman Abdolali

    Iran Human Rights (IHR); February 28, 2021: The Supreme Court has upheld Arman Abdolali’s qisas (retribution-in-kind) sentence for murder. Arman was under 18 years old at the time of the alleged murder.

    According state-run Shargh, Arman Abdolali is a juvenile offender who was arrested on murder charges in 2013. He confessed to the murder at the time of his arrest, but the body was never found and he later withdrew his confession.

    The preliminary court had sentenced Arman to qisas without taking into consideration that he was a juvenile offender.

    Days prior to his execution, Arman’s lawyer found out that Ghazaleh (the victim) had been issued with a leave of absence by her university and her insurance policy had been renewed and used them as evidence to request a retrial.

    Two of the judges who had previously sentenced Arman to qisas, opined that further investigations would be required in light of the fact that the letter from her university was dated after the murder was alleged to have taken place. Meanwhile, Ghazaleh’s family gave Arman an extension and opportunity to reveal the location of the body.

    His retrial was heard before Branch 5 of the Criminal Court, when he was studying for his master’s degree at Shahid Modarres University. Once again, he denied the murder and stated that he did not know where her body was and that she might be alive.

    His case was later referred to the Tehran Criminal Court, which found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to qisas. The sentence has now been upheld by the Supreme Court.

    Iran is one of the few countries in the world that still carries out the death penalty for juvenile offenders. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the Islamic Republic is a signatory to, prohibit the issuance and implementation of the death penalty for crimes committed by an individual below 18 years of age.

    Yet, according to data collected by IHR and international human rights organisations, the Islamic Republic is responsible for more than 70% of all executions of juvenile offenders in the last 30 years. IHR’s statistics also show that at least 63 juvenile offenders have been executed in Iran over the past 10 years, with at least four executed in 2020.

    Given the security state and repression of civil society activists and the limited contact with prisoners, it is likely that the number of juvenile executions is much higher than recorded.

    https://iranhr.net/en/articles/4648/

  2. #142
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    EYE FOR AN EYE Iranian woman ‘executed by her own DAUGHTER under chilling laws that let kids exact revenge on their parents’

    AN Iranian woman was executed by her own daughter under barbaric death penalty laws, reports claim.

    Maryam Karimi was hanged for killing her abusive husband with the help of her father.

    She was executed at Rasht Central Prison on March 13, after serving 13 years behind bars.

    Maryam's daughter, who was six when she killed her husband, took part in the execution after reportedly refusing to forgive her or accept "Diya" (blood money), according to Iran International TV.

    Maryam was charged with "retribution in kind", which is known in Iran as "Qisas" - a form of "an eye for an eye" retribution.

    Qisas requires the victim’s next of kin to be present at the execution and they are actively encouraged to carry out the execution themselves.

    A source told Iran Human Rights: "Maryam’s daughter was six years old when the murder took place and has been in the care of her father’s family.

    "For the past 13 years, they had told her that both her parents were dead, but had to tell her the truth a few weeks prior to the execution to prepare her psychologically.”

    'INHUMANE AND CRUEL'
    Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of campaign group, Iran Human Rights, said: “The Islamic Republic laws make a girl whose father was murdered when she was a child, the executioner of her own mother.

    "The Islamic Republic is the leading promoter of violence in Iranian society today.”

    Following the execution, it is reported that Maryam’s father Ebrahim was brought in by authorities to see her corpse hanging.

    However, for unknown reasons the death penalty was not handed down to him.

    Activist and journalist at Iran International TV, Aram Bolandpaz said: “Four decades of brain-washing at schools, extreme punishments in Iranian society and a patriarchal regime mean that Maryam's daughter was raised to make sure that executing her mother was a victory for a man, whether that be for her father or for the oppressive regime.

    "Qisas is inhumane, savage, and cruel, no matter where in the world.

    "For a country which prioritises the rights of unborn babies and emphasises that life is the most valuable phenomenon, how can the Islamic Republic seize a life from someone in such an awful way.”

    Qisas is inhumane, savage, and cruel, no matter where in the world.

    Aram BolandpazActivist
    The continued use of Qisas in Iran has caused uproar with human rights campaigners.

    But the Qisas death sentence was retained for murder in the Iranian Islamic Penal Code in 2019.

    Qisas are also in use for juvenile offenders, whilst Sharia law defines the age of criminal responsibility for girls to be nine-years-old, and 15 for boys.

    In 2019, 225 executions were carried out as Qisas, reports Iran International TV.

    There was 68 being carried out in one prison alone, and four of these executions involving individuals who were juveniles at the time of the offence.

    As a plaintiff in Qisas cases, the responsibility of carrying out the execution and the decision on whether the accused should be executed is theirs to make.

    https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/new...barbaric-laws/
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  3. #143
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I'm going to issue a warning that articles from websites such as IHR "Iran Human Rights" and NCRI(National Council of Resistance of Iran) which both advocate in most of their articles for the overthrow of the Iranian government to not be reliable in their reporting. Consider it propaganda akin to the South Korean "Sources" on North Korea. If you do not hear something directly from the nation itself assume you are hearing war propaganda.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #144
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Death row murderer 'dies from happiness' after finding out he was saved from execution

    The condemned man was reportedly so overjoyed at learning that his victim's family had forgiven him, and he no longer faced the hangman, that his heart gave out

    - By Michael Moran, DailyStar | February 22, 2022 -

    An Iranian man condemned to death 18 years ago after being convicted of murder “died of happiness” after being told that his sentence was being commuted.

    The 55-year-old from southern Iran, named in local reports as Akbar, was forgiven by his victim's family which meant he would no longer face the death penalty.

    Officials in the state's dispute resolution board are reported to have helped to persuade the family to make the decision.

    But after learning that the victim's family had pardoned him and that he no longer faced the hangman, Akbar suffered a heart attack as a result of being "overjoyed" and died, according to a report in the state-run newspaper Hamshahri.

    It’s not unusual in Iran for death penalties to be commuted after the payment of Diyyeh – a privately-arranged settlement between the families of victim and perpetrator.

    Iranian legal sources put a typical Diyyeh payment at 4,800,000,000 Rials - or about £83,000.

    In many cases, judges try to persuade the family to forgive the murderer, even at times pressuring them to do so. Often, a murder execution is delayed for several years after the murder was committed in order to persuade the family to exercise forgiveness and allow time for the murderer to pay Diyyeh.

    Despite that arrangement, Iran still executes more of its citizens, per capita, than any other nation on Earth.

    Apart from internationally-recognised crimes such as murder, rape and drug-trafficking, the hardline Islamic state also puts people to death for homosexuality and religious offences such as "waging war against God"; "spreading corruption on Earth”.

    Hamshahri quoted sources familiar with the case as saying that Akbar had been living in fear of being executed for the murder he committed at the age of 37, and it was the sheer relief that brought on the cardiac event.

    The paper added that officials in the state's dispute resolution board were able to convince the victim's family to pardon him, but he died before being released.

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/wor...iness-26300864
    https://archive.ph/GeiEl

  5. #145
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    April 28, 2022

    Iran executions: Alarming rise in use of death penalty in 2021 - report

    By BBC News

    Executions in Iran rose alarmingly by 25% last year and surged after hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected president, two campaign groups say.

    At least 333 people were put to death, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France's Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM).

    The number of executions for drug-related offences - 126 - was five times higher than in 2020, their report says.

    The figures are based both on official announcements and sources inside Iran.

    In October, a UN human rights expert warned that almost all executions in Iran were "an arbitrary deprivation of life" and urged the country to end the imposition of the death penalty where it is in violation of international law.

    Under Iran's penal code, people can be executed for crimes that are not considered among "the most serious" under international law, such as drug trafficking."

    The UN expert said vague charges, such as "enmity against God" and "corruption on Earth", were meanwhile used to sentence individuals to death for participation in protests, for other forms of dissent or where there was a lack of evidence for the accusations.

    Judges trying capital and other cases also relied heavily on forced confessions extracted through torture and other forms of duress to prove guilt, he added.

    According to the report published on Thursday by IHR and ECPM, only 16.5% of the 333 executions the groups believe took place in Iran last year were announced by official sources.

    Authorities did not report any of the drug-related executions, whose sharp rise marked a major reversal of a trend seen since Iran amended its anti-narcotics law in 2017, the report says.

    July, the month after President Raisi's election victory, saw the most executions - 51 - followed by September and December, it adds.

    At least 17 women were executed in total, eight more than in 2020, it adds. They included Zahra Esmaili and Maryam Karimi, who were convicted of murdering abusive husbands. Esmaili's lawyer is cited as saying that she suffered a heart attack as she watched several men being executed in front of her, and that officials still hanged her lifeless body.

    Two men convicted of crimes committed when they were children were also put to death, according to the report. One of them, Arman Abdolali, found guilty of murdering his girlfriend in 2013 when he was 17, was taken to the gallows seven times in the months prior to his execution, it says.

    The report also expresses alarm at what it calls the "disproportionate number of ethnic minority executions". Baluchis accounted for 21% of those executed in 2021, although they only represent 2-6% of the population, it says.

    The directors of IHR and ECPM, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam and Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, called on Western powers to address Iran's death penalty record and other human rights violations as part of their negotiations on an agreement to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61256213
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  6. #146
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Swedish court convicts Iranian ex-official over 1988 executions


    BBC

    Hamid Nouri, 61, was sentenced to life in prison for what prosecutors said was his leading role in the killing of large numbers of opposition supporters.

    He had denied the charges, while Iran had denounced the trial as "illegal".

    Nouri was arrested after flying to Sweden in 2019 and was tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

    He was the first person to face prosecution for participating in the executions, which Iran's establishment has never formally acknowledged.

    The trial has strained relations between Sweden and Iran, which has been accused of using an Iranian-Swedish dual national sentenced to death on spying charges as a "hostage" in an attempt to force an exchange with Nouri.

    Swedish prosecutors accused Hamid Nouri of committing war crimes and murder between July and September 1988, when they said he was assistant to the deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj.

    Following an attack during the Iran-Iraq War by Iraq-based members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), Iran's then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order to execute all prisoners who were loyal to or sympathised with the leftist opposition group.

    Secret tribunals that came to be known as "the Death Committee" interrogated and sentenced to death thousands of inmates. Iran's current President, Ebrahim Raisi, was one of the four judges who sat on the tribunals, although he denies involvement in the killings.

    The exact number of those who were subsequently executed is not known, but human rights groups have said that between 2,800 and 5,000 men and women were hanged and then buried in unmarked mass graves in what constituted a crime against humanity.

    Swedish prosecutors accused Nouri of participating in the mass executions at Gohardasht and, as such, "intentionally taking the lives of a large number of prisoners who sympathised with the Mujahedin and, additionally, of subjecting prisoners to severe suffering which is deemed torture and inhuman treatment".

    He was also accused of the murder of inmates who sympathised with various other left-wing groups and were regarded as apostates.

    At the trial, which began last August, former prisoners at Gohardasht testified that Nouri helped select who was brought before the tribunal; that he was personally involved in the torture of inmates; and that they saw him taking condemned people to the gallows.

    Nouri's defence team argued that he was a victim of mistaken identity. They said he never worked at Gohardasht and was instead an administrator at Tehran's Evin prison who happened to be on leave during the executions.

    However, the court found on Thursday that he "jointly and in collusion with others participated in the commission of the criminal acts".

    Human Rights Watch said the ruling sent "a message to the most senior Iranian officials implicated in these crimes that they can't remain beyond the reach of justice forever".

    Nouri was arrested in November 2019 when he arrived at a Stockholm airport on a flight from Iran. Swedish police acted after receiving a criminal complaint based on testimony from former political prisoners.

    Iran's judiciary called Nouri's trial "unlawful and unfair", saying it was a violation of justice and human rights principles.

    Swedish law recognises the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows one country's judicial system to prosecute crimes against international law even when they were not committed on that country's territory.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62162676
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #147
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Why Is Iran Executing So Many Prisoners?

    Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

    With a long list of crimes punishable by death, Iran put at least 314 prisoners to death last year, second only to China, which recorded more than 1,000 executions. The Iran Human Rights organization actually puts the figure at 333. That's up from 267 executions in Iran in 2020.

    The alarming number of executions - almost all believed to be by hanging - has drawn the attention of much of the international community and of global rights watchdogs, who believe that capital punishment is cruel, degrading, and inhumane. But why have more Iranian prisoners been executed over the past two years? While mandatory death sentences still exist for certain offenses, observed trends raise questions about the real motive behind these sentences.

    When being tried for a crime, Iranian citizens are not equal before the law. Men have more rights than women, Muslims have more rights than non-Muslims, and Shi'a Muslims have more rights than Sunni Muslims, who are a minority in the country.

    Ethnic minorities are also at a disadvantage in the justice system. Although they make up only 2 to 5 percent of the population in Iran, the Baluch minority accounted for 21 percent of executions in 2021 and 26 percent in the first half of 2022.

    Iran is also one of the few countries in the world that executes juvenile offenders. International law forbids the death penalty for people who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime for which they have been convicted. In Iran, however, juveniles are often kept in prison and executed after they come of age. In 2021, a man who was 15 at the time of his arrest was executed in Iran after spending almost 20 years on death row. Currently, more than 85 convicted juveniles are on death row in Iran.

    A Flawed Judicial System

    Other nuances of Iranian law, like a judicial system and courts that are widely seen as discriminatory and biased, also influence the criteria used to apply death penalties.

    The head of the judiciary is directly appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to Iranian law, suspects are allowed access to a lawyer, but their rights to choose such lawyers are limited. In serious criminal cases and those involving security charges, suspects can only choose lawyers from a list approved by the head of the judiciary.

    None of the death row inmates that Iran Human Rights obtained information about had access to a lawyer in the pretrial phase following their arrest.

    Revolutionary Courts

    In Iran, different crimes are judged by different courts. Rape and murder cases are handled by the Criminal Courts, while enmity against God, armed rebellion, and drug-related cases are handled by the Revolutionary Courts, responsible for most of the death sentences issued in the last 12 years.

    Number Of Death Sentences Issued By Each Court Since 2010

    However, these courts are not transparent, and judges are known for the extraordinary abuse of their legal powers, denying lawyers access to convicted individuals and allowing exhausting interrogations using torture to coerce suspects to confess to crimes.

    Revolutionary Courts are also responsible for issuing severe sentences to those found to have criticized the authorities. In June 2021, the Iranian parliament passed a draft bill targeting citizen journalists. If approved, journalists or human rights activists reporting on the death penalty could face the death penalty themselves.

    All of these factors facilitate the excessive imposition of death sentences in Iran. The years 2021 and 2022 saw dramatic increases in the number of executions. According to Iran Human Rights, at least 333 were executed throughout the country in 2021 - the most since 2018. And the numbers so far for 2022 are on track to shatter that record, with 320 already executed in 2022, according to Iran Human Rights.

    Executions In Iran Over The Past Five Years

    An increase in drug-related executions also raises questions given the current setting in which they are happening. An amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Law, passed at the end of 2017, had previously led to a significant decrease in the number of drug-related executions in Iran, but in 2021 there was a fivefold increase in these figures, with at least 126 people being executed for drug-related charges. This is a violation of international law, which prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes not involving intentional killing.

    The peak of executions for drug-related crimes in Iran in 2021 was in July, which was also the month after a presidential election, when protests over economic woes and water shortages erupted. On July 26, 2021, while protests were happening in Kermanshah, RFE/RL reported that, on top of "ruthless" force used against peaceful protesters, there was a wave of arrests on the outskirts of the city.

    In an interview with RFE/RL, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights, observed another trend: Executions decline during major election periods. He said executions are paused because the world is paying attention to what happens in the country.

    Correlation Between Executions And Elections/Protests

    The number of executions also started to rise after Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021, and the average monthly number of executions under his presidency is already almost equal to that of former President Hassan Rohani during his seven and a half years in power.

    Backlog Strategy?

    In May and June of this year, 33 people were executed in six different prisons across Iran. Amnesty International found out that, since early 2022, authorities in Raja'i Shahr prison, west of Tehran, have been executing five people each week on average, with up to 10 executions in some weeks. These grim figures were happening at the same time that the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and other top judicial officials were giving statements about the need to address prison overcrowding.

    The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center had already identified this pattern in previous years. Between 2007 and 2008, then-judiciary chief Ayatollah Shahroudi instituted a strategy aimed at resolving a backlog of cases. This resulted in a significant number of cases being tried and closed, yet nearly 1 million cases were still unresolved in 2013. The judiciary chief then issued more guidelines to speed up these processes. In the years since Shahroudi's guidelines, executions in Iran increased dramatically, reaching a peak of 1,054 in 2015.

    Reported Executions In Iran Over The Last Decade

    Nuclear Talks And Scrutiny

    Another pattern observed happened during talks concerning the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official title for the nuclear deal between Iran and Western powers. Amiry-Moghaddam of Iran Human Rights said that Iranian authorities are under less scrutiny when the JCPOA talks are ongoing, as was the case in early 2021 when efforts to revive the deal, abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump, were restarted.

    This pattern of an increase in executions was also observed during the initial rounds of the JCPOA talks in 2013-15.

    Public Executions Paused

    For the first time in decades, no public executions were reported in Iran in 2021, a fact attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. "However, recent reports indicate that the Iranian authorities are planning to resume public executions," Iran Human Rights says. "Strong condemnations by the international community and civil society in Iran can prevent this barbaric practice from returning to the streets."

    https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/...y-prisoners160
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #148
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Western News outlets are currently claiming without an actual primary source that 227 members of the Iranian Parlaiment have signed a letter to the judiciary of the nation encouraging them to execute over 15,000 people who have been arrested due to their involvement in the unrest over the killing of Mahsa Amini.


    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...on/ar-AA13SNuc
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  9. #149
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Iran executes first known prisoner arrested in protests

    By Jon Gambrell
    Associated Press

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said Thursday it executed a prisoner convicted for a crime allegedly committed during the country’s ongoing nationwide protests, the first such death penalty carried out by Tehran.

    The execution of Mohsen Shekari comes as other detainees also face the possibility of the death penalty for their involvement in the protests, which began in mid-September, first as an outcry against Iran’s morality police. The protests have expanded into one of the most serious challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

    Activists warn that others could also be put to death in the near future, saying that at least a dozen people so far have received death sentences over their involvement in the demonstrations.

    The execution “must be met with strong reactions otherwise we will be facing daily executions of protesters,” wrote Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. “This execution must have rapid practical consequences internationally.”

    The Mizan news agency, run by Iran’s judiciary, said Shekari had been convicted in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, which typically holds closed-door cases. The tribunals have been internationally criticized for not allowing those on trial to pick their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them.

    Shekari was accused of blocking a street in Tehran and attacking with a machete a member of the security forces, who required stitches for his wounds, the agency said.

    The Mizan report also alleged that Shekari said he had been offered money by an acquaintance to attack the security forces.

    Iran’s government for months has been trying to allege — without offering evidence — that foreign countries have fomented the unrest. Protesters say they are angry over the collapse of the economy, heavy-handed policing and the entrenched power of the country’s Islamic clergy.

    Mizan said Shekari had been arrested on Sept. 25, then convicted on Nov. 20 on the charge of “moharebeh,” a Farsi word meaning “waging war against God.” That charge has been levied against others in the decades since 1979 and carries the death penalty. Mizan said an appeal by Shekari’s lawyer against the sentence failed.

    After his execution, Iranian state television aired a heavily edited package showing the courtroom and parts of Shekari’s trial, presided over by Judge Abolghassem Salavati.

    Salavati faces U.S. sanctions for meting out harsh punishments.

    “Salavati alone has sentenced more than 100 political prisoners, human right activists, media workers and others seeking to exercise freedom of assembly to lengthy prison terms as well as several death sentences,” the U.S. Treasury said in sanctioning him in 2019.

    “Judges on these Revolutionary Courts, including Salavati, have acted as both judge and prosecutor, deprived prisoners of access to lawyers and intimidated defendants.”

    German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned Shekari’s execution in a Twitter post, saying “the Iranian regime’s contempt for humanity is limitless.”

    James Cleverly, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, described himself as “outraged” and said: “The world cannot turn a blind eye to the abhorrent violence committed by the Iranian regime against its own people.”

    France’s Foreign Ministry said the “execution is yet another instance of the serious, unacceptable violations of fundamental rights and freedoms committed by the Iranian authorities.”

    Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the country’s morality police. At least 475 people have been killed in the demonstrations amid a heavy-handed security crackdown, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the protests since they began. Over 18,000 have been detained by authorities.

    Iran is one of the world’s top executioners. It typically executes prisoners by hanging. Already, Amnesty International said it obtained a document signed by one senior Iranian police commander asking an execution for one prisoner be “completed ‘in the shortest possible time’ and that his death sentence be carried out in public as ‘a heart-warming gesture towards the security forces.’”

    https://apnews.com/article/iran-crim...b83fdddc35fdc8

  10. #150
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    Alireza Akbari: Iran preparing to execute British citizen - family

    The family of a British-Iranian dual national sentenced to death in Iran have told BBC Persian that authorities are preparing to execute him.

    Alireza Akbari's wife, Maryam, said she had been asked to come to his prison for a "final meeting" and that he had been moved to solitary confinement.

    The ex-deputy Iranian defence minister was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, which he denied.

    The UK urged Iran to halt the planned execution and immediately release him.

    "This is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life," Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted.

    Earlier, a Foreign Office spokesperson told the BBC that it was supporting Mr Akbari's family and had repeatedly raised his case with Iranian authorities.

    It has requested urgent consular access, but Iran's government does not recognise dual nationality for Iranians.

    BBC Persian also broadcast an audio message on Wednesday from Mr Akbari in which he says he was tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.

    He says that he was living abroad a few years ago when he was invited to visit Iran at the request of a top Iranian diplomat who was involved in nuclear talks with world powers.

    Once there, he adds, he was accused of obtaining top secret intelligence from the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, "in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt".

    Mr Akbari served under Mr Shamkhani when the latter was defence minister during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who was in office for two terms between 1997 and 2005.

    Hours after the audio message was broadcast, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency confirmed for the first time that Mr Akbari had been found guilty of espionage, and that the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal.

    It cited Iran's intelligence ministry as saying that Mr Akbari had been "one of the most important infiltrators of the country's sensitive and strategic centres" for the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, and that he had been "compiling and consciously transferring sensitive information".

    The ministry claimed that its agents uncovered Mr Akbari's spying by feeding him false information.

    At the end of November, Iranian state media reported that authorities had hanged four men convicted of "co-operating" with Israeli intelligence.

    Another four have been executed since December after being sentenced to death in connection with the anti-government protests engulfing the country.

    Alicia Kearns, chair of the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the news from Mr Akbari's family was "awful".

    "Unfortunately, it is another horrifying example of the Iranian regime - because they feel they are cornered, because there is such significant pressure from sanctions on them - weaponising British nationals and industrialising hostage taking," she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

    She speculated that Mr Akbari might have been singled out by hard-liners in the establishment in order to undermine Mr Shamkhani, who she described as a "moderate voice... [who] has been calling for discussions and dialogue" in response to the current protests. Iran's current leaders have portrayed them as "riots" and cracked down on them with lethal force.

    Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency in recent years, mostly on spying and national security charges.

    British-Iranian citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released and allowed to leave Iran last year after the UK settled a long-standing debt owed to Iran.

    However, at least two other British-Iranians remain in detention beside Mr Akbari, including Morad Tahbaz, who also holds US citizenship.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64240226
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

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