Less than three weeks into 2011 and Iran has executed 47 prisoners. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) spokesperson, Aaron Rhodes, says ‘[t]he Iranian Judiciary is on an execution binge orchestrated by the intelligence and security agencies.’ At one execution every eight hours, it is a hanging frenzy. Iran executes more people per capita than any other country in the world.

While 47 is the number officially reported ICHRI reports that the number of executions in Iran is apparently much higher. Multiple and reliable reports indicate that secret, mass executions of more than a hundred have taken place in Mashad’s Vakilabad prison.

Most recently, Iran hanged Kurdish activist Hossein Khezri, who was put to death this past Saturday. Kurds are disproportionately targeted by the regime. ‘The execution of Kurdish activists, without fair trials and following torture,’ says Rhodes, ‘increasingly appears as a systematic, politically motivated process.’

Other Kurds on death row in Iran include: Zeinab Jalilian, Habibollah Latifi, Shirkoo Moarefi, Rostam Arkia, Mostafa Salimi, Anvar Rostami, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Aghooshi, Ahmad Pooladkhani, Seyed Sami Husseini, Seyed Jamal Mohammadi, Hasan Talei, Iraj Mohammadi, Mohammad Amin Abdollahi and Ghader Mohammadzadeh.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called on the Iranian Parliament and the Judiciary to immediately institute a moratorium on executions and to move swiftly to abolish the death penalty, in the face of skyrocketing executions following unfair trials and opaque judicial proceedings.

sources:

Iran on “Execution Binge;” Immediate Moratorium Urged. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, 16 January 2011.

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