Four victims, 17 to 23 years old, were hanged in public in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday. Another prisoner was hanged in Bojnourd (northeast). A 17-year-old and four others were sentenced to death in the same period.

In the two months since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, namely in July and August, the clerical regime has hanged or sentenced to death at least 53 prisoners. Seven were under the age of 18 when hanged or at the time of the alleged offense. In the first six months of this year, the state-run media had reported 59 hangings and death sentences.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran again calls on the international community to condemn these cold-blooded executions and urges the United Nations Secretary General, High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Commission and the General Assembly to take immediate action, including the referral of the mullahs' horrific human rights record to the United Nations Security Council for the adoption of binding punishments.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 26, 2005