Revoke Execution Sentence of Web Programmer

(1 February 2012) Iran should immediately suspend the death sentence for web programmer and Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour and investigate allegations of his torture, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

On 30 January 2012 Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of 36-year-old Malekpour for “insulting Islamic sanctities” allegedly because he managed a network of pornographic websites. Malekpour’s family has maintained that he simply developed image-sharing software that was used, without his knowledge, to post pornographic photos.

Secret Executions: Findings Challenge Judiciary’s False Narrative

Details of Death Penalty Procedure Affirm the Need for Moratorium

101 Identities of Vakilabad’s Mass Executions Revealed

(5 January 2012) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran published the first public list of 101 victims of secret group executions in Vakilabad Prison today. The Campaign called on the Iranian Parliament and judiciary to immediately institute a moratorium on executions and to move swiftly to abolish the death penalty.

“Prison Authorities Say He Won’t Need Warm Winter Clothes As He Will Be Executed”

Eghbal Moradi, father of Zanyar Moradi, a Kurdish prisoner at Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the Supreme Court upheld his son’s death sentence. “My relatives went to prison this week to bring Zanyar warm clothing, as the cold season has come. But prison officials told them that he would not need the clothes as his death sentence has been upheld. They told my relatives this explicitly, adding that they would be informed of the execution date,” Eghbal Moradi told the Campaign.

Secret Group Executions Continue at Vakilabad; Dozens More Executed In April and May

Though Iranian judicial authorities continue to stay silent about the execution of prisoners with drug-trafficking charges inside Mashad’s Vakilabad Prison and refuse to acknowledge the executions or related statistics, informed sources tell the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that more than 70 individuals were hanged inside this prison in March, April, and May. [...]

Secret and Unannounced Executions in Khuzestan

Local sources in Khuzestan Province told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that during the past months, Judiciary authorities did not announce several executions that took place inside the province’s prisons. The Campaign previously reported of dozens of unannounced and secret executions inside Mashad’s Vakilabad Prison and other prisons in the country, all of which have remained unannounced by the Judiciary authorities. Several eyewitnesses visiting Khuzestan prisons have reported seeing families who had come to claim bodies of their executed relatives; however, official sources have not published any statistics pertaining to the executions. In one case the families stated that a group of convicts with drug-trafficking charges were executed together.

“His Last Wish Was To Embrace Me, But They Didn’t Allow It,” Says Mother Of Executed Inmates

On 17 May the death sentences of two brothers, Mohammad and Abdollah Fathi Shoorbariki, were carried out. Their mother, Mahvash Alasvandi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her children’s grievances were never reviewed and their last wishes of embracing their mother were not granted. “All we said was that their complaints be reviewed before executing them. We said what is the rush? They are in your hands and they are not going anywhere. You have held them for nine months. Review their complaint first and then execute them. But unfortunately they didn’t do this.”

Only One Month to Find, Sentence and Execute Suspects, Says Ahwazi Activist

Yousef Azizi Banitorof, Secretary of the Center for Combating Racism and Discrimination Against Arabs in Iran, who currently resides in London, spoke with International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran following news from the Al Arabiya website quoting Ahwaz News about recent executions in Ahwaz. “According to news we were able to receive from our contacts in Ahwaz, three people were hanged in public at Hamidieh Junction. They were three brothers by the names of Ali Heydari (25), Jassem Heydari (23), and Nasser Heydari (21). The hangings were viewed by eyewitnesses and there is no doubt that they took place. But another six were hanged inside Karoon Prison in Ahwaz, and nobody knows anything about it. Their families have not yet seen the bodies, nor were they informed at all in order to appear at the prison on the execution date. They, too, have only just heard this news,” said Azizi Banitorof.

Two Post-Election Protestors Hanged

(24 January 2011) Following the execution of two post-election protestors today, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reiterated its call on the Iranian Judiciary and Parliament to immediately institute a moratorium on all death penalty cases and put a stop to the growing wave of executions.

Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haji Aghaee, two post-election protestors charged with Moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” were hung today inside Tehran’s Evin prison without their family or lawyers being notified. Four other prisoners allegedly charged with criminal activity were also hung in Iran today, according to official reports.

Javad Larijani’s Admission to Ineffective Death Penalties for Drug Traffickers

While the number of executions related to drug trafficking has startlingly increased in the recent months in Iran, a foreign diplomat told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Javad Larijani, Chief of the Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council, has expressed in his meetings with foreign authorities that the policy of executing drug-related criminals has been unsuccessful, and that capital punishment has not reduced drug-related social maladies.

Philipine National at Vakilabad Prison Appeals for Help

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has received a letter from a man who identifies himself as Ernie Guienoo Tamonde, a citizen of the Philippines. Tamonde wrote that he is being held inside a prison in Mashad on drug charges but professes his innocence.