Iran’s New Year’s Eve Execution Proves Rejection of the Principles of Human Rights

Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee
(PMOI / MEK Iran) reported that the Iranian authorities’ plans to execute a 30-year-old man, Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee, for a crime that took place when he was 16 years old and following a conviction based on “confessions” extracted under torture.

Iran’s New Year’s Eve Execution

Last Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement condemning the execution of a young offender in Iran. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the  People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), reported that this is just one of many human rights violations that take place regularly with no accountability.

Earlier in 2020, 3 other young offenders were executed by the Iranian judiciary and this latest case shows that the regime takes no notice of criticisms from outside the country.

Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee was hanged at the age of 30 years after being on death row for more than 13 years due to allegations that at the age of 16 years he had stabbed a man which led to his death.

At the time of the alleged murder, the assailant under international human rights law shouldn’t have been given the death penalty due to his age. But Iran never takes any notice of international law and does as it pleases.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of democracy and accountability in the country, it is rare that any sentences implemented are ever overturned. What the judiciary does with younger people who have been charged is to wait until they get older so they can implement a sentence such as the death penalty without the need for accountability.

Tehran has refused to stop the executions of juveniles and has not responded to any accusations so far.

Juveniles who have been sentenced to the death penalty are mostly held in prison until their 18th birthday, and sometimes for even longer, to ensure that because the convicted juvenile has reached 18 years few will complain if he was subjected to the death penalty.

Tehran seems committed to implementing juvenile execution so human rights activists can bring attention to more than one such case every calendar year. Currently, there is a constant backlog of juvenile offenders around 80 who are waiting to be executed on death row in Iranian prisons.

Another juvenile execution
(NCRI) and (PMOI / MEK Iran): This criminal execution, a clear violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Iran has the highest execution rate per capita

The report for 2020 from the Human Rights Activists News Agency said that 236 capital sentences had been imposed in 2020 with 95 put on death row. This is supposedly fewer than 2017 because a law was allegedly passed that seemingly ended the death penalty for it seems some non-violent drug offenders.

It appears that recently there was an implementation of new sentencing guidelines that gave judges the power to make their own decisions. Overall it seems from the evidence provided that some hanging judges haven’t taken any notice of new guidelines. So, overall, statistics reveal that in 2020, 95 executions were for non-violent drug offenders.

In December the Iran Human Rights Monitor reported that the vice president of the parliament’s Judicial and Legal Commission had announced its intent to draft a bill that would permit the death penalty to be for an entirely new category of a non-violent offense.

This, according to the official, Hassan Norouzi, identified a new law that was based on “the Fifth Book of the Islamic Punishment Law which deals with punishment of betting in the cyberspace.” Also, according to Norouzi, the bill emphasized some tough punishments for such activities as repeated instances of someone being involved in online gambling.

According to HRANA, Mohabreh was responsible for four percent of the death sentences implemented in 2020 in Iran. And this figure offers has been noticed by the UNHCR, Amnesty International, and the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The UNHCR recently released a warning regarding a report released on the execution of three prisoners without any notice given who were members of the Baluchi ethnic minority and the Sunni Muslim religious minority. They were it seems among quite a large group of inmates who were placed into solitary confinement on December 18 which led observers to believe that they were about to be executed.

So far the statistics for executions in Iran are yet to be released for 2020 but the estimated total is a figure around 236 which is likely to be underestimated with no true figures likely to be revealed any time soon.

Sadly many of the executions are as a result of those convicted simply fighting for the right to speak openly in their own country. There are very few western democracies that would choose to gun down peaceful protesters.

Iran Human Rights Monitor released a report that a 32-year-old called Shaker Behrouz was sent to trial on December 9 and then handed a death sentence for a murder that there is no evidence he committed. Even Behrouz’s family rejected any accusations filed against Behrouz and was only too willing to testify in his favor.

The Iranian Regime Hanged 4 person, including two women in Gohardasht prison of Karaj.
(NCRI) and (PMOI / MEK Iran): Some 4000 persons have been executed in Iran in the past six years under Rouhani.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI): Consecutive executions of Baluchi political prisoners, particularly after years of imprisonment, are tantamount to the massacre of political prisoners which is an ongoing crime against humanity. Once again, I call for action by the UN Security Council. 

MEK Iran (follow them on Twitter and Facebook)

and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube