Dozens of political prisoners transferred from all over the country to Tehran’s Gohardasht and Evin Prisons
Five prisoners were hanged in Evin prison and twenty-three others are facing the gallows
NCRI – The mullahs’ judiciary chief, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, fearing the volatile state of the society especially that of the youths has ordered death penalty should be carried out behind close doors. This is a new tactic by the Iranian regime to carryout other heinous crimes such as amputating limbs and gouging eyes behind scenes.
This comes at the time when five prisoners were hanged in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran on Wednesday. Twenty-eight prisoners were also relocated from Gohardasht to Evin prison to face execution.
Amid all, yesterday the state-run television quoted Shahroudi as saying, "Carrying out executions in public is only possible with the agreement of the judiciary chief and based on social necessities. The execution sentence … should not be carried out or publicized in a way that would create psychological tensions for the society, especially the young." "The death penalty should be carried out behind closed doors and barred the publication of television footage or photographs of executions," the state television further added.
The ruling clerics fearing the increasing popular uprisings and protests as well as growing hatred of the gruesome scenes of street tortures among the Iranian people have turned to the new tactic of committing their crimes behind the close doors.
The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and all international human rights and children rights organizations to condemn the increasing number of executions, in particular those of the teenagers, by the Iranian regime. The Resistance also calls for referral of the Iranian regime’s human rights dossier and its state sponsorship of terrorism to the UN Security Council. It also calls for urgent measures to halt the executions and other cruel and degrading punishments in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 31, 2008