MESOP : WHO TRUSTS CONTRACTS WITH HANGMEN ? / NEW UN REPORT – Iran summarily executed 98 people in a month

May 12, 2015 – ARA News – Erbil, Kurdistan Region – The United Nations expressed its condemnation of the latest figures of executions carried out by the Iranian authorities during the past few months. According to a report documented by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, and Christophe Heinz, the Special Rapporteur on arbitrary executions, Iranian authorities executed 98 prisoners in April.

Shaheed said that the Iranian government refuses to acknowledge the number of arbitrary executions that took place last month. “This is a complete contempt for human dignity, and the international principles of human rights,” he added.On the other hand, Heinz expressed his “shock” about the high number of executions in Iran. The report pointed out that since the beginning of January, 340 people were executed in Iran, including dozens of political prisoners, seven of them were women, including activist Rehana Jabari.

At least 15 cases were subject to public executions, according the U.N.

The report also indicated that some 852 people were executed in Iran in 2014, including women and minors. Heinz and Shaheed appealed to the Iranian authorities to abolish the death penalty and abide by international conventions. In the meantime, peaceful protests swept the Kurdish city of Mahabad, and expanded to other cities in northwestern Iran where Kurds constitute majority following decades of suppression. The Iranian security forces started taking more repressive measures against angry Kurdish protesters, who started taking to the street after the 23-year-old Kurdish girl, Farinaz Khosrawani, committed suicide following a sexual harassment by an Iranian security officer last Thursday.

Last February, the Kurdish political activist Saman Nesim was executed in the jail of the city of Urmia, in western Iran, on charges of participating in armed activities of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan against the Iranian government. The Iranian government is facing severe criticism from the United Nations and the international organizations for violations against human rights, especially after the documentation of dozens of summary executions of opponents, journalists and civil rights activists. Reporting by: Sarbaz Yousef – Source: ARA News