NCRI – The clerical regime announced Saturday the execution of eight prisoners. The executions are aimed to increase the atmosphere of intimidation in the country prior to a mass protest planned for March 16, the Persian traditional annual fire festival.
According to reports by the state-run media on February 27, five of the prisoners identified as Rouhollah Kh., Saeed M., Shokrollah N., Fereydoun N., and Zabihollah Kh. were hanged in Kerman, southeast Iran. Three other men were hanged in Birjand for allegedly killing number of policemen.
The total number of executions based on state-run media reports since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started on March 21, 2009) has passed 440. The true figure for executions is much higher as this does not cover the secret executions and the ones not reported by the media or people killed in streets by suppressive forces. In the past, the clerical regime has executed many political prisoners as ordinary criminals and drug traffickers.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations, in particular the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to condemn barbaric capital punishments in Iran and take urgent measures to put an end to the current inhumane trend in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 28, 2010