At least 42 people hanged in Iran in less than a month
NCRI – Brig. Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan, the deputy commander of the mullahs’ State Security forces (SSF) –mullahs suppressive police– announced on Tuesday that a new plan was being implemented to step up suppression in Iran, the semi-official news agency Fars reported.
The plan is being carried out under the guise of “boosting public security in the country” to carry out widespread arrests and torture people for what the mullahs' call “mal-veiling” and “hooliganism”. Radan had announced only two days earlier that the regime’s paramilitary Bassij forces would be given greater powers to suppress the population.
“In the framework of the Bassij Neighbourhood Watch plan which has been taking place across the country for the past month, from now on when the Bassij forces encounter a crime they are authorized to take action and make an arrest and afterwards hand the person over to the security forces,” Radan said, adding, “Bassij forces can use private or marked vehicles when making their rounds. The police are not able to cover every neighbourhood; however, the Bassij can do so given the relevant intelligence it has at hand on possible events.”
The wave of arrests in various cities under the guise of combating "thugs and hooligans" has continued even as the Bassij are given greater powers. These arrests are taking place simultaneously with a new wave of executions. Earlier this month, two groups of 9 and 10 people including two women were mass executed in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. At least 42 people have been executed over the past month alone.
These measures are indicative of the mullahs’ fear of the volatile state of society, particularly after the nationwide student protests of December 6 marking the Student Day. The students chanted of “death to the dictator”, “Seyyed Ali Pinochet, Iran will not become like Chile was” (identifying the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet), and “We are fighters, men and women, Fight us and we will fight” swept across the nation. The mullahs also fear the annual religious ceremonies in the Islamic month of Moharam which have typically turned into anti-government protests.
The Iranian Resistance urges the international community and human rights bodies to refer the mullahs’ abysmal track record to the United Nations Security Council for imposing comprehensive arms, oil, technical and diplomatic sanctions against them to bring an end to the systematic atrocities by the religious fascism.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 30, 2008
