Three other prisoners identified only with their initials, S. R., A. M., and M. Kh. were also hanged in public in the city of Azna in Lorestan province. The inhumane measure was carried out in the presence of a number of the regime’s officials, including the province’s judiciary chief “amidst tight security and in public” (state-run Fars news agency, August 12, 2010).
At the same time, Brig. Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, the commander of the Greater Tehran State Security Forces (SSF), said 1,269 people have been arrested in the capital city in one week alone. The arrests were made under the regime’s pretext of protecting “social security.” According to this report, “In the last week, 964 vehicles and motorbikes were stopped during the implementation of the social security plan.”
Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan, the Deputy Commander of the SSF, threatened on Sunday that, “We will not in any way show lenience … during the implementation of the social and moral security plan.”
He added that various individuals have been referred to courts and will have their vehicles confiscated for two months (Borna publication, affiliated with the regime’s Revolutionary Guards). Radan also said, in addition to the SSF forces, 26 other suppressive organs of the regime are participating in the so-called “chastity and veiling” plan.
Setting up gallows in various Iranian cities and carrying out extensive arrests, particularly with regards to women and youths, exposes the faltering Iranian regime’s inability to confront the rising protests by the Iranian people against the ruling religious fascism.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 24, 2010