Torture in Iran: Background, thanks to Insights Into Today's Middle East
Executions, torture, systematic
arrests, and imprisonment are usual occurences in Iran. Capital punishment is
used liberally and executions are most often performed in public, often in a
cruel and sadistic manner. While this state of affairs has been prevalent since
the Iranian revolution in 1981, under President Ahmadinejad, the treatment of
detainees has worsened in Tehran´s Evin prison as well as in detention centres
operated by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps. Authorities subject those imprisoned for peaceful
expression of political views to torture and ill-treatment, including beatings,
sleep deprivation, and prolonged solitary confinement. Judges often accept
coerced confessions. [1]
• The Islamic regime of Iran is the country in the world with the highest record of public hangings and executions. [2]• Iran is one of several countries that opposed its abolition in December 2007 during a vote on the United Nations General Assembly resolution. Officials argued that the abolition of the death penalty would be an infringement on Iran´s sovereignty. [3]
• Amputation has been a punishment in Iran since the Islamic revolution of 1979 installed Islamic law. In the newly publicized instances, the courts ordered the right hand and left foot cut off, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the condemned to walk, even with a cane or crutches. [4]
• According to a count by Agence France Presse, based on report in local newspapers, Iran hanged 298 people in 2007, compared with 177 hangings in 2006. [5]
In July 2007, former student detainees and the families of three imprisoned student journalists, Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Ghasaban, and Ehsan Mansouri, made public allegations that Ministry of Information agents had physically and psychologically tortured the three detained students and five others whom the government had held in relation to student publications. Authorities broadcast statements obtained from the detainees who were denied access to lawyers. [6]
Torture of children
• Iran has ratified the UN convention for the rights of the child which bans death penalty for the offences committed as a minor. But so far this year (2008) at least two minors (Javad Shojaee and Mohammad Hassanzadeh) have been executed in Iran. More than 100 other minors are currently being held in Iranian prisons waiting for their death sentences. [7]
• The use of the death penalty in Iran, particularly for minors, has been condemned in resolutions of the European Union Parliament. EU states are urged not to deport to Iran any people whose lives could be in danger there.
According to the most recent resolution, "Iran and a few other countries still execute minors, but Iran is known to have executed more juvenile offenders than any other country in the world, and according to reports more than 100 individuals are on death row in Iran for crimes allegedly committed wen under the age of 18". [8]
________________________________________________________________
References:
[1] http://www.iranhumanrights.net/2008/02/human-right-in.html
[2] " Iran: Amnesty International Condemns New Wave of Executions," Iran Press Service, October 19, 2007
[3] „Fathi, Nazila: „Spate of Executions and Amputations in Iran,“ The New York Times, January 11, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/world/middleeast/11iran.html?_r=1&ex=1200632400&en=9798c8a709cd6495&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin l
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] http://www.iranhumanrights.net/2008/02/human-right-in.html
[7] http://www.iranhumanrights.net/2008/02/human-right-in.html
Comments