executions

We write to register our strongest protest at the increasing number of executions in Iran. Among the five executed this morning^{^[i]} three had their cases open and under review. While in detention they were repeatedly tortured, ill treated and degraded and deprived of the most basic right of legal counsel. No one including their lawyers and families had any knowledge of their impending executions. The condition under which they passed the last night of their lives is not yet known. It is obvious however, that they were not even allowed a final farewell with their loved ones. Earlier letters from prison, from those executed this morning, told of the atrocious conditions they had to endure while their fate was being decided in the so called courts of justice.

Justice in Iran today, however, is not only blind but deaf and dumb. Blind to see the marks of torture and abuses of law, deaf to the cries of the families and all concerned and dumb unable to speak out about the atrocities committed in its courts, detention centres and prisons under the name of ‘Islamic justice’.

At least 388 people were executed in 2009 including minors and juvenile offenders. According to Amnesty International reports the annual number of executions has almost quadrupled since 2005. As was most apparent during the show trials of summer 2009, none of those executed received fair trials. For your information, as well as 131 juvenile offenders, the ‘Be our Voice’ anti execution campaign^{^[ii]} has identified 22 Kurds, 6 Baluchis, 1 Iranian Arab and 14 individuals in Tehran who remain at the imminent risk of execution.

We, the undersigned, believe that all Iranians without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status are equal and for this reason we condemn all cases of execution throughout Iran and commit to full and mutual support for each other.

We also express our grave concern for all those who remain in detention after the June 2009 presidential election under pressure to accept false charges that potentially carry the death penalty as ultimate punishment.

Sir, we expect you to demand that Special Rapporteurs are allowed to travel to Iran. We also expect your strongest protest and unequivocal condemnations of the shameful use of execution as a tool of intimidation and oppression. May we respectfully remind you, Sir, that the United Nations as the name implies is the protector of the world’s people and not their governments and that you as the symbol of United Nations ideals and a spokesperson for the interests of the world's peoples are obliged to condemn in no uncertain terms the violations of a regime that fails to observe even its own limited procedural code.

[i] Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Ali Haydarian, Mehdi Eslamian and Shirin Alam Houie were executed this morning

[ii] http://www.aciiran.com/against_execution_in_iran.htm