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Thread: Iran Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Iran steps up rate of public executions

    Since the start of 2011, up to 13 men have been hanged in public.

    Amnesty International has condemned a sharp rise in the rate of executions in public in Iran – which have included the first executions of juvenile offenders in the world this year.

    Since the start of 2011, up to 13 men have been hanged in public, compared to 14 such executions recorded by Amnesty International from official Iranian sources in the whole of 2010. Eight of those executions have taken place since 16 April 2011.

    On 20 April 2011, two juvenile offenders – identified only as “A.N” and “H.B” - were among three individuals hanged in public in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, after being convicted over a rape and murder committed when they were only 17. A fourth man was hanged at the same time for rape.

    “Yet again, Iran has distinguished itself by being the only country this year to execute juvenile offenders. No more juvenile offenders must die at the hands of the state,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

    “Not only were these young men executed for crimes committed when aged under 18, but their executions were carried out in public. Public executions are not only a violation of the right to life, but are a gross affront to human dignity which cannot be tolerated.”

    On 16 April 2011, three men were also hanged in public in Shiraz for murder, armed robbery and kidnapping. A fourth man was hanged on the same day near Kazeroun in Fars Province after being convicted of four counts of murder.

    Public executions in Iran are usually carried out by cranes which lift the condemned person by a noose around the neck. They are advertised in advance.

    Iran is one of the only countries that still imposes the death penalty on juvenile offenders - those convicted of an alleged crime committed before they were 18 - and was the only country known to have executed a juvenile offender in 2010. Executions of juvenile offenders are strictly prohibited under international law.

    UN human rights experts have made it clear that executions in public serve no legitimate interest and only increase the cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of this punishment.

    “It is deeply disturbing that despite a moratorium on public executions ordered in 2008, the Iranian authorities are once again seeking to intimidate people by such spectacles which not only dehumanize the victim, but brutalize those who witness it,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

    There was a sharp rise in the rate of executions in Iran in December 2010 and January 2011, with at least 86 people executed in January alone.

    The rate fell significantly in February 2011, after international condemnation of the rise, but has risen again since the end of the Iranian New Year holiday in early April.

    According to official sources, at least 135 people – ten in public - have been executed so far this year. Credible reports suggest over 40 others - three of which were said to have taken place in public in Salmas, north-west Iran, in February – have also taken place, which have not been acknowledged by the authorities.

    UN human rights bodies have also stressed the need for states which carry out executions to be transparent about their use of the death penalty. The UN General Assembly has passed three resolutions calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

    http://www.news.az/articles/iran/35282

  2. #12
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    Trial of U.S. hikers in Iran

    The scheduled trial of two Americans accused of espionage in Iran was delayed again Wednesday after the suspects were not brought from jail to the courthouse, a Swiss diplomat told CNN.

    "I have been able to verify that the session has actually been postponed due to the absence of the two prisoners. They were not brought in from prison," said an official with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, who according to protocol, asked not to be identified.

    Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran.

    "There were no reasons given why they were not brought in," the diplomat said.

    Iranian authorities had once again barred Swiss diplomats from monitoring trial proceedings of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were charged with espionage after being arrested 22 months ago while hiking along an unmarked border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan.

    The two Americans were expected to appear in Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolutionary court on Wednesday morning.

    The last time Fattal and Bauer appeared in court, Swiss diplomats and the prisoners' defense attorney were not allowed into the courtroom.

    In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, defense attorney Masoud Shafii said he had yet to be granted a private meeting with his clients.

    "What I hope is that the court comes to a decision," Shafii said.

    "This case must be closed. It has gone on long enough." Human rights organizations have launched direct appeals to Iranian officials calling for the Americans' release. "

    The endless prosecution of the two hikers appears to be little more than a political jab at the United States," said Sarah Leah Whitson of the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch.

    "This case highlights the cruel and arbitrary nature of the Iranian justice system."

    In a separate statement, Amnesty International's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said the Iranian justice system "has systematically failed to observe international fair trial standards in this case, including giving the men adequate contact with their lawyer, families or consular assistance."

    A third U.S. citizen who was arrested on the border in 2009 and accused of spying has refused to attend Wednesday's scheduled court hearing after being released on bail last year.

    Iranian authorities allowed Sarah Shourd, Bauer's fiancee, to leave the country on "humanitarian grounds" after she paid bail of half-a-million dollars.

    Shourd said she would not return because she was suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder after spending 14 months in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

    In a essay published this week in The New York Times, Shourd wrote Fattal and Bauer's cell "contains two beds, a sink, a toilet, a shower and an empty space about the size of a large beach towel. With fluorescent lights continuously kept on, Josh and Shane never enjoy the luxury of darkness; in order to sleep at night they have to tie a shirt around their eyes."

    An Iranian prosecutor said investigators found "compelling evidence" all three Americans were spies.

    Suspects convicted on espionage charges can face the death penalty in Iran. All three American prisoners have maintained their innocence.

    "They were strictly travelers who were near an unmarked border that no one would be able to know whether it was Iraq or Iran," defense lawyer Shafii said.

    The picturesque mountain border region where the Americans were detained is a popular picnic and camping destination for Iraqi Kurds. The border is also porous. Smugglers regularly cross the frontier on donkeys and horseback, bringing fuel to Iraq and alcohol into the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/....hikers.trial/

  3. #13
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    Iran to Hang 300 for Drug Trafficking

    Three hundred people convicted of drug trafficking offenses are on death row in Iran, the Islamic Republic's judiciary said Monday. According to the anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain, at least 126 people have already been hanged for drug offenses so far this year.

    "For 300 drug-related convicts, including those who were in possession of at least 30 grams of heroin, execution verdicts have been issued," said Tehran prosecutor-general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, according to a Reuters report.

    An annual British report on human rights put the number executed in Iran last year at more than 650, up from 388 in 2009. Of last year's executions, a whopping 590 were for drug trafficking, according to that report.

    Members of the Iranian government have confirmed that drug executions make up a huge part of all executions, but added that if the West was unhappy with the killings, Iran could simply quit enforcing its drug laws.

    "The number of executions in Iran is high because 74% of those executed are traffickers in large quantities of opium from Afghanistan bound for European markets," said Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme Council for Human Rights, during a press conference in May.

    That press conference came after a meeting with representatives of South Africa, which had criticized Iran's quick resort to the death penalty.

    "There is an easy way for Iran and that is to close our eyes so drug traffickers can just pass through Iran to anywhere they want to go," he said."The number of executions in Iran would drop 74%. That would be very good for our reputation."

    Hmmm, that's actually not a bad idea.

    http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/...ug_trafficking

  4. #14
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    Iran Executing Hundreds in "War on Drugs"

    ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 27, 2011 (IPS) - Iran is drawing international criticism for its continued mass executions of people convicted of violating its drug laws. The Islamic Republic's judiciary reported that 300 people were on death row as of May 30.

    "For 300 drug-related convicts, including those who were in possession of at least 30 grammes of heroin, execution verdicts have been issued," said Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran's prosecutor- general, according to the Sharq daily newspaper.

    The Iranian government has already hanged 126 people for drug offences so far this year, as of May 30, according to Hands Off Cain, a death penalty abolition organisation.

    Iran executed 650 people in 2010, 590 of whom were convicted for drug offences, according to the United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office 2010 report on Human Rights and Democracy. This was up from 388 in 2009.

    "Estimates suggest that Iran executes more people per capita than any other country in the world. The year 2010 saw a steep increase in the number of executions in response to a tough new anti-drugs policy," the report states.

    "We've seen a huge surge in numbers being reported by the government, we're not sure whether they're the actual numbers," Faraz Sanei, Iran and Bahrain researcher with Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, told IPS.

    Some of the executions have been recent. Iran executed Esmaeel G., Hossein N., Hasan Q., and Hasan K. for drug offences on Jun. 1, according to Iran's justice department website.

    On Jun. 19, two men - Siah Khan Sh. and Mohammad N. - were hanged for drug-related convictions, according to the Ettelaat newspaper of Iran.

    The executions are most often carried out by hanging, although another common method is firing squad. Iran's method of hanging, called suspension strangulation, is particularly cruel and involves strangulating someone by pulling them upward with a crane.

    "The number of executions in Iran is high because 74 percent of those executed are traffickers in large quantities of opium from Afghanistan bound for European markets," Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme Council for Human Rights, said during a press conference in May.

    The press conference followed a meeting with South African Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim, at which South Africa criticised the sentences.

    It is not disputed that Iran has some serious problems with drugs and drug trafficking. Many Iranians have addiction problems with heroin and opium, while some have reportedly turned to making chemical drugs in their homes.

    In addition, "Iran is dealing with a problem of armed drug trafficking gangs from Afghanistan, paramilitaries. There have been levels of violence between traffickers and government forces," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told IPS.

    Still, "that is no reason to move forward with the hanging of 300 people, not people who are drug lords. Essentially people get caught up in low-level drug offences," Nadelmann said.

    Larijani defended Iran during the press conference.

    "There is an easy way for Iran and that is to close our eyes so drug traffickers can just pass through Iran to anywhere they want to go," Larijani said. "The number of executions in Iran would drop 74 percent. That would be very good for our reputation."

    But Nadelmann said, "The Iranians are being disingenuous when they say there's a requirement to execute people because of Western law."

    Iran may be in violation of international law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Iran is a signatory, Sanei argued. The ICCPR says the death penalty, if not abolished entirely, should be reserved for the most serious and grave offences.

    "Look at the Iranian penal code. A whole host of crimes can get you the death penalty. A large number of these crimes would not be considered by human rights lawyers to be serious," Sanei said.

    "One of those are drug offences... many of the individuals on death row in Iran are essentially on death row for drug possession," Sanei said, adding, "The amount of drug required under Iranian law to get you the death penalty is very small."

    "The judiciary is extremely nontransparent in Iran. We don't believe these individuals have fair trials. In particular with drug laws in Iran, there's been a streamlining process in last several years which allows, when they get someone for drug trafficking, it's not appealable. It goes back to the prosecutor's office, that's the person who decides if they should be executed or not. This completely violates international trial standards," Sanei said, adding that access to attorneys is often also a problem.

    At the same time that Iran has taken increasingly severe approach in sentencing those convicted of violating drug laws, it also had embraced a public health or harm reduction approach in terms of needle exchange programmes.

    "Five years ago the Ayatollah declared needle exchange programmes okay under Sharia law," Nadelmann said, adding that the decision was in part out of concern for preventing the spread of HIV.

    "Because of the growing totalitarian nature of the Ajmadinejad government, there has been less support for harm reduction, but it still continues," Nadelmann said.

    Meanwhile, India's Supreme Court announced last week that the death penalty for drug related offences was unconstitutional.

    http://www.international.to/index.ph...id=80:politics

  5. #15
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    Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Released

    An Iranian pastor who was handed the death sentence for apostasy is no longer on death row, his lawyer said Sunday.

    Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani of the northern city of Rasht, attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Agence France-Presse. Just days earlier, human rights groups had reported that the Supreme Court had found Nadarkhani guilty of apostasy and upheld the death penalty ruling by a lower court.

    Nadarkhani, who was arrested in October 2009, converted from Islam to Christianity in his late teens. The now 32-year-old evangelical house church pastor was first arrested for protesting against Christian children being forced to participate in Muslim religious education in school. Then last year he was sentenced to death for apostasy.

    “The Supreme Court has annulled the death sentence and sent the case back to the court in Rasht (his hometown), asking the accused to repent,” said attorney Dadkhah.

    “Repent” in the eyes of Islamic sharia law means Pastor Nadarkhani should renounce his conversion.

    Pastor Nadarkhani’s lawyer said he has only heard the Supreme Court ruling read to him over the phone and he needs to go to Rasht to read it for himself. Lawyer Dadkhah is himself facing 9 years in prison, which a Tehran court handed him on Sunday for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” according to AFP. He is also barred from practicing law for ten years.

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/ir...entence-51863/

  6. #16
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    54 criminals sentenced to death in Iran

    Fifty-four people convicted of committing heavy crimes have been sentenced to death penalty over the last four months, Mehr News Agency reported quoting Spokesperson of Iranian Judiciary System Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei as saying to journalists in his weekly briefing.

    "They are accused of murdering, kidnapping and raping," said Ejei.

    According to Ejei, 45 of them have been executed in that period.

    Iran takes the second place in the world after China in term of execution rate.

    http://en.trend.az/news/society/1910070.html

  7. #17
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    'Iran says it will issue verdicts on US hikers soon'
    By REUTERS
    08/15/2011 19:30

    Judiciary official quoted as saying that review of espionage case has ended; denies "rumors" that 2 would be released during Ramadan.


    TEHRAN - Iran will issue verdicts soon on American hikers detained for more than two years on espionage charges, a judiciary official was quoted as saying on Monday, dimming hopes for their immediate release.

    Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been awaiting a verdict since their trial ended last month. They pleaded not guilty to spying charges after they were arrested along with American Sarah Shourd in July 2009 near Iran's border with Iraq.

    RELATED:
    Iran foreign minister says hopes US 'hikers' will be freed
    Iran may release detained US hikers soon, says lawyer


    Shourd was released on bail in September 2010 and returned to the United States.

    "Reviewing the case has ended and the final verdict will be issued soon," Prosecutor General Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei was quoted as saying by the students' news agency ISNA.

    When asked whether the two men would be released during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on Aug. 1, Mohseni-Ejei said he had not heard such "rumors", according to ISNA.

    Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Aug. 6 he hoped the two Americans would be freed, in what was seen at the time as the most positive signal yet that their ordeal may soon end.

    Their lawyer, Masoud Shafiee, had said he expected a verdict within a week of the final court hearing.

    Spying can be punishable by death in Iran but Shafiee has said there is no evidence against his clients and even if found guilty of illegally entering Iran they should be freed due to time already served.

    In November, Iran's judiciary announced espionage charges against the three. Their families said they were hiking and had strayed across the border accidentally. Washington says the charges are totally unfounded and they should be released.

    The United States cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after the 1979 Iranian revolution. The two countries are now embroiled in a row over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making atomic bombs. Tehran denies this.

    http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=233886

  8. #18
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    Iran sentences 2 American men to 8 years in jail in blow to hopes for freedom

    TEHRAN, Iran — Two American men already held for two years in Tehran have been sentenced to 8 years each in prison on charges of espionage and illegal entry into Iran, state TV reported Saturday.

    The announcement appeared to dash hopes for the imminent release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal after Iran’s foreign minister suggested earlier this month that the trial could clear the way for their freedom.

    The Americans deny the charges and say they were only hiking in a scenic and largely peaceful area of northern Iraq near the Iranian border.

    The two men have been held since July 2009 after being taken into custody on the Iran-Iraq border. A third American who was taken with them, Sarah Shourd, was released in September 2010 on $500,000 bail and returned to the United States.

    Shourd’s case “is still open,” the website irinn.ir reported.

    Bauer and Fattal, who are both 28, have been sentenced to three years each for illegal entry into Iran and five years each for spying for the United States, the website quoted “informed sources” at Iran’s judiciary as saying. It was not immediately clear if that includes time served. They have 20 days to appeal the sentence.

    Their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he has not been notified of the verdict but he will definitely appeal the sentence if true.

    “I’ve not been notified of any verdict in the case of my clients,” Shafiei told The Associated Press. “This is a strong verdict inconsistent with the charges.”

    The Americans say they mistakenly crossed into Iran when they stepped off a dirt road while hiking near a waterfall. While other parts of Iraq remain troubled by violence, the semiautonomous Kurdish north has drawn tourists in recent years, including foreigners.

    The case has added to tensions between the United States and Iran that were already high over other issues, including Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

    The U.S. government has appealed for the two men to be released, insisting that they have done nothing wrong. The two countries have no direct diplomatic relations, so Washington has been relying on an interests section at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to follow the case.

    Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he hoped “the trial of the two American defendants who were detained for the crime of illegally entering Iran will finally lead to their freedom.” Their lawyer also had expressed hope they might receive a pardon for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

    Phone and email messages left for Sarah Shourd; Shane Bauer’s mother, Cindy Hickey; and the families’ media representative, Samantha Topping, were not immediately returned.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...rc=al_national

  9. #19
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    Iran committing a miscarriage of justice??!?? Who would've ever thought it??

  10. #20
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    Hikers' lawyer appeals Iran spying sentences

    The lawyer for two Americans convicted of spying in Iran said on Sunday he had lodged an appeal against their eight-year sentences and still hoped they might be pardoned.

    Masoud Shafiee has not been able to see Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal since their conviction last week but said they had been informed of the verdict, passed two years after their arrest near the Iraq border where they say they were hiking.

    The sentence came as a shock for supporters of the men whose hopes for their imminent release had been raised by positive comments from Iran's foreign minister.

    "I hope because of the holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr they might enjoy Islamic clemency," Shafiee told Reuters.

    The end of the Muslim fasting month, which has yet to be announced by religious authorities in Iran, is likely to be on Tuesday or Wednesday and Shafiee said clemency remained a possibility.

    Bauer and Fattal were arrested on July 31, 2009 along with a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was released on $500,000 bail in September 2010 and returned home.
    Story: Clinton: US disappointed by hikers' plight in Iran

    The trio, in their late 20s and early 30s, say they were hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq and, if they crossed the unmarked border into Iran, it was by mistake. Under Iranian law, espionage can carry the death penalty.

    Their trial took place behind closed doors and no evidence against them has been made public.

    The affair has compounded tension between Tehran and Washington, which have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent storming of the U.S. embassy by revolutionary students.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304667.../#.TlpQkGPLq_I

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