Iran on “execution binge”: 1 execution every 8 hours

Increase in Executions
On January 16, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) repor­ted that the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has exe­cu­ted over 97 people in the past 30 days, of whom four were pri­soners of con­sci­ence. The IRI has aver­a­ged one exe­cu­tion every eight hours since the start of 2011. Currently, the IRI exe­cu­tes more people per capita than any other coun­try in the world, and is second only to China in num­ber of exe­cu­ti­ons over­all.

This past Monday (January 24, 2010), the IRI exe­cu­ted two post-election pro­tes­tors, Mr. Jafar Kazemi and Mr. Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaee after they were “con­vic­ted” of “moha­re­beh” (enmity against God) – a charge that, by its terms is alle­ged against those who take up arms against the state. No such evi­dence was pre­sen­ted in the cases of Mr. Kazemi and Mr. Aghaee, and in the end, the evi­dence used against them inclu­ded sen­ding foo­tage of elec­tion pro­tests abroad.

[suffusion-widgets id='1']

As the ICHRI notes, “Moharebeh has become the Iranian Judiciary’s catch-all justi­fi­ca­tion for kil­ling poli­ti­cal dis­si­dents.”

Organizations and activists world­wide are urging the IRI to halt its “exe­cu­tion binge”, insti­tute an imme­diate mora­to­rium on exe­cu­ti­ons, con­duct inde­pen­dent reviews of pen­ding death penalty cases, and to abolish the death penalty. Read on to learn more about how you can take action and urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to halt exe­cu­ti­ons.

Take Action!

Keep Iran’s Hearts Beating – Postcard Campaign
In light of the sud­den increase in exe­cu­ti­ons, U4I encou­ra­ges the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­nity to mail post­cards to various world, UN, and IRI aut­ho­ri­ties urging an imme­diate mora­to­rium (aut­ho­ri­zed sus­pen­sion) on exe­cu­ti­ons, an inde­pen­dent review of all pen­ding death penalty cases, and to abolish the death sen­tence. Click here to down­load, print, and mail post­cards.

Organize a Candle Light Vigil
Want to take your pro­test a step fart­her? Organize a candle light vigil to take place bet­ween February 4 – 7 con­dem­ning and deman­ding a halt to exe­cu­ti­ons. Remember to take ple­nty of foo­tage that can be widely dis­se­mi­na­ted in order to demons­trate glo­bal soli­da­rity and the demands sought. If you orga­nize a demons­tra­tion or vigil, con­sider prin­ting and asking par­ti­ci­pants to sign and mail the post­cards. Details, tal­king points, and pos­ters will be avail­able on the U4I site very soon. If you or your orga­niza­tion are orga­ni­zing an action, let us know so we can help spread the word. Email us at share@united4iran.org.

Current Actions
Over the last few months, our collec­tive efforts have resul­ted in the sen­ding of over 140,000 e-letters to world lea­ders, UN offi­ci­als, and IRI aut­ho­ri­ties.

Your dedi­ca­ted wri­t­ing and e-letters con­ti­nue to high­light cri­ti­cal rights situa­ti­ons in Iran and reaf­firm to world lea­ders over and over that the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­nity remains active and deeply con­cer­ned. It is an honor to col­la­bo­rate with such a tire­less com­mu­nity of activists. If you haven’t yet sent an e-letter, take a look at the active advo­cacy cam­paigns below. In 30 seconds and with just one click, you can send a mes­sage of con­cern to up to 30 offi­ci­als.

Save Kurdish Minority, Habibollah Latifi
3,646 people have sent 82,329 mes­sa­ges

Free Iran’s Human Rights Defenders
1,703 people have sent 43,316 mes­sa­ges

Support Iran’s Students
216 people have sent 4,090 mes­sa­ges.

Save Canadian Resident, Saeed Malekpour
299 people have sent 4,794 mes­sa­ges.

Release Rozita Vasseghi, mem­ber of Iran’s Baha’i com­mu­nity
232 people have sent 5,070 mes­sa­ges.

Stop the Practice of ‘Internal Exiles’
2,728 mes­sa­ges sent.

Improve pri­son con­di­ti­ons and pro­vide pri­soners with ade­quate medi­cal care
243 people have sent 5,695 mes­sa­ges

Worldwide Support for Nasrin Sotoudeh & Iran’s Human Rights Defenders

As a gesture of soli­da­rity and sup­port, many law orga­niza­ti­ons, non-profits, and asso­cia­ti­ons around the world have released state­ments con­dem­ning the tre­at­ment of Iran’s human rights defen­ders, many of whom remain detai­ned on poli­ti­cally moti­va­ted char­ges or sen­tenced to long pri­son terms.

Thus far, the National Lawyers Guild and the European Democratic Lawyers have voiced their con­cerns, with orga­niza­ti­ons such as Italy’s “Women in Black” and PEN International fol­lo­wing suit. The orga­niza­ti­ons have cal­led for the release of human rights lawy­ers, inclu­ding Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mohammad Oliyafar, and mem­bers of Iran’s Defenders of Human Rights Center and the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to allow these lawy­ers to work wit­hout harass­ment, thre­ats, or restric­tions to their work and free expression.The European Parliament also made a motion for a reso­lu­tion on Iran regar­ding the case of Nasrin Sotoudeh.

If you’re part of a law orga­niza­tion or asso­cia­tion, law school, stu­dent union etc., con­sider working with your group/association to publish a simi­lar state­ment of sup­port or sign on to an exis­ting one. U4I has draf­ted a sample state­ment of sup­port for Iran’s human rights defen­ders that can be used as-is or modi­fied and per­so­na­li­zed. Let us know if your group deci­des to take action. If you post it on the association’s web­site, we would greatly app­re­ciate a link to share with the world. If your group doesn’t have a web­site and needs a place to publish the state­ment, feel free to con­tact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Human Rights Watch Publishes 21st Annual World Report

Human Rights Watch just publis­hed its 21st annual World Report, which sum­ma­ri­zes human rights con­di­ti­ons in more than 90 coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries world­wide and reflects inves­ti­ga­tive work under­ta­ken in 2010 by HRW in part­nership with other rights activists.

The report details Iran’s deepe­ned human rights cri­sis since 2009′s dis­pu­ted pre­si­den­tial elec­tion and notes that hund­reds of people – inclu­ding lawy­ers, rights defen­ders, jour­na­lists, civil society activists, and oppo­si­tion lea­ders – remain detai­ned wit­hout charge. The report fur­ther explo­res how inter­ro­gat­ors con­ti­nue to use tor­ture to extract con­fes­si­ons from pri­soners, which the judi­ci­ary has used as a basis to sen­tence people to long pri­son terms and even exe­cu­ti­ons. It also exami­nes the restric­tions on free­dom of expres­sion and asso­cia­tion and reli­gious and gender-based dis­cri­mi­na­tion.

To read more about Iran’s human rights cri­sis in the HRW World Report, click here.

Recent News

AP: Rights group decries ‘exe­cu­tion binge’ in Iran

AFP: Iran laun­ches cyber crime unit “to con­front Internet cri­mes and coun­ter social net­works”

Baha’i International Community: Arsonists threa­ten repri­sals if Baha’is befri­end Muslims

DaneshjooNews: Interview with Marek Baranski (ESU Student Union Development Committee)

EA WorldView: What the Executions Say About the Regime’s “Control” and Murder

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: Two Post-Election Protestors HangedInternational Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: Executed Political Prisoner’s Wife: They Didn’t Inform Me or His Lawyer

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: 97 Executions in 30 Days–The Iranian Judiciary Steps Up Executions

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: Irresponsible Statements And Threats–Can The Judiciary Head Act Above The Law?

Yahoo! News: US invi­tes EU to sanc­tion Iran over rights abu­ses

Yahoo! News: Iran rounds up about 70 Christians in crack­down

Connect with U4I!

DonateNow

* Make a dona­tion to U4I to help fund cam­paigns and tools
* “Like!” us on Facebook
* Follow us on Twitter
* Subscribe to U4I’s RSS feed