The Iranian regime executed a group of six prisoners on Thursday in the main prison in the northwestern city of Orumieh, according to the information received from Iran.
The executions of the six prisoners, which was not announced in any state-run media, brings the number of executions in January 2014 to 83 – which represents an almost 90% increase compared to 46 in January 2013.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Christof Heyns, called on the Hassan Rouhani’s government on January 22 to urgently halt the surge in hangings in the country since the start of 2014.
The two experts stressed ‘the inherently cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty’, and added: “We are dismayed at the continued application of the death penalty with alarming frequency by the authorities, despite repeated calls for Iran to establish a moratorium on executions.”
Before Ahmed Shaheed releases his reports to the public, an early draft has been sent to Iran to give Iranian officials time to respond. But the Iranian regime’s justice minister and office of human rights all both dismissed the report.
The head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, criticized the upcoming UN human rights report on Iran. Upon receiving a draft, Larijani said that the body would not cave to pressure and branded the report as ‘full of lies’.
Mullah Mostafa PourMohammadi, the Justice Minister of Rouhani’s cabinet, launched a fiercely worded attack on Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, calling him ‘corrupt’. He said: “Ahmed Shaheed is not even a jurist and he has entered the arena as a political operative. From the outset, he has taken a stand against us; in essence we are against having a Rapporteur.” (Fars – January 16).
Despite repeated requests by the international community, the government of Hassan Rouhani has not allowed the UN Rapporteurs on human rights into Iran.
