Clemency Pleas Ignored as Authorities Execute"Rebels"

Prison authorities executed 22 people at Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj on Monday, May 25, following the execution of 11 others at the prison on May 6 and 21.

After the first executions, inmates at the prison staged a protest during Friday prayers on May 22. The 22 inmates due to be executed gathered alongside other prisoners to read passages from the Koran and other religious texts and call for their sentences to be reduced. They carried placards calling on Ayatollah Khamenei to show clemency.

Following the protest, the 22 inmates were then transferred to quarantine on Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24. According to Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, the head of the Iranian Human Rights Organization, prison authorities had already threatened to execute them on the same day as the protest, though the threat was not carried out until three days later.

Islamic Republic authorities have not officially confirmed any of the executions.

Most of those executed had been involved in a large demonstration against the use of the death penalty in the prison on August 17, 2014. Security guards attacked the prisoners after they gathered in the courtyard to voice their objections. Some of the guards were armed with guns, and used them to intimidate, injure — and in some cases even kill — protesting inmates.

In 2015, Mahmoud Amiri Moghadam said, Iranian authorities had so far executed 400 people, a figure equal to the number of executions in the first half of 2014. The recent killings mean that use of the death penalty is officially on the increase in Iran in 2015. 

Prison guards killed and injured several inmates during the August 2014 prison protest. Families of the prisoners, who had gathered outside the prison to stage a simultaneous protest, were also subjected to violence, with security forces using batons and water cannons to push the crowd back.

But Iran’s Prison Organization described last August’s incident as “an operation to prevent the escape of prisoners”. In a video published after the riot, Ebrahim Zirak, one inmate who had received a death sentence, is shown in front of the camera, shouting alongside other prisoners: “We will not let anybody to be killed here any more!”

All of the executed prisoners, many of who have not been identified, had originally been brought to the jail on drugs charges, which cannot be presented to an appeals court or receive pardon. Although the Islamic Republic has always presented the convicted prisoners held at Ghezel Hesar in Karaj, which is outside Tehran, as being “major drug dealers,” and claimed that many of the inmates were “terrorists” and “armed” at the time of arrest, according to Amiri Moghaddam’s organization, this is not true. “Many were arrested carrying less than 400 grams of drugs,” the organization stated.

In August 2014, Iran’s Interior Minister, Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, announced that a death sentence for drug dealers is “different” from other executions. “These drug dealers are not only involved in sale of drugs, but also are active in money laundering, armed attacks and terrorist operations. They are a serious threat to the world’s peace.”

But Amiri Moghaddam dismisses these claims, based on interviews his organization has conducted with some of those facing the death penalty. “None of the those we interviewed were armed, nor were they an international drug dealer. None of them were arrested near Iran’s borders. Most of them were drug users and local residents. Some had been arrested for the first time. The Islamic Republic has not presented any evidence of their terrorist activities or any of them being armed. The UN anti-drug organization also told me that the Islamic Republic does not present such evidence, even in international meetings.”

According to Amiri Moghaddam and research carried out by the Iranian Human Rights Organization, those charged with drug-related charges routinely face torture during interrogation, including being hit by cables and given electric shocks. After torture, prisoners are forced to confess.

“When it is time for the trial, the lawyers can do nothing, because the defendant has already confessed. These prisoners are tried secretly behind closed doors and sentenced to death. When the time for execution comes, the defendant is called and without telling him or her, their hands and feet are tied and they are transferred to the quarantine zone. The sentence is then carried out.”

The highest numbers of unannounced executions take place at Rajaii Shahr and Ghezel Hesar prisons. The majority of prisoners held on drugs charges in Iran are held at Ghezel Hesar prison. In May, a total of 44 executions have taken place in the prison, figures that have been confirmed by the Iranian Human Rights Organization. Around 2,000 prisoners are awaiting their execution and are currently held in Ward 2 of the prison.

So far, no evidence has been provided to suggest that the death penalty has been effective in minimizing crime in Iran. At the same time, the Islamic Republic regards itself as being on the front line of the international fight against drug dealing and crimes, supported by the anti-drug committee of the United Nations. Islamic Republic authorities repeatedly claim that “tens of martyrs die in this war each year.”

Following international protests last autumn, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the judiciary’s human rights council, announced that laws pertaining to the death penalty for drugs-related crimes would be reviewed and reformed: “Nobody is happy about the high number of executions,” he conceded.

In response to these comments, Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam said, “The Larijani brothers have confessed that the death penalty is not a suitable response to drug issues. Therefore, these executions must not continue.” He said the fact that this reform had not yet been implemented revealed that the issue was not a priority for the regime.

“Reactions from civil society organizations inside the country can have a great impact on this process,” Moghaddam said. “The prisoners executed in Ghezel Hesar prison come from the most vulnerable groups of society and require help and support, support from everyone: the media, civil rights groups and families. The execution of these prisoners resembles a mass murder. In the Middle East, killing on this scale only reminds us of Islamic State.”

So far, a full list of the inmates killed on May 6, 21 and 25 has not been provided. But the following deaths have been confirmed by human rights organizations: Abbass Ameri, Karimbakhsh Bameri, Haj Ahmad Ebrahimi, Abbass Heyudari, Asghar Khoshki, Ahmad Rabii, Ahmad Rabdoost and Seyed Mohammad Mirhosseini, all formerly held in Unit 2, Area number 2 of the prison; and Massoud Zibaii, who had been detained in Unit 2, Area number 3.