The President of Llibertat i Democràcia and Vice President of Liberal International, Jordi Xuclà expresses alarm over the rising numbers of executions in Iran.
Since the June 2013 Presidential elections in Iran, there were big expectations in the West that the new President Hassan Rouhani will be more moderate and tolerant towards the Iranian people’s call for freedom and democracy. But the record of the past seven months has shown a totally opposite direction in escalating violation of human rights in Iran.
At least 625 people were executed in Iran during 2013, which is a record high number for the past ten years. Most executions have taken place after Rouhani took office. According to reports, since the beginning of 2014 more than 150 people have been hanged in Iran, many of them in public. This week a 25-year-old women, Farzaneh Moradi, was hanged accused for a crime committed when she was 19, something that she had repeatedly denied. Her 10 year old daughter is now without mother. Last week, footage posted on social networks and YouTube showed the shocking scene of a young man who was begging to have a chance to see her mother before he was executed in public on 25 February, the henchmen rejected his request.
The head of EU External Affairs Baroness Ashton is now expected to be going to Iran on Saturday 8 March which coincides with the International Women’s Day. Jordi Xuclà said “it is absolutely essential that Baroness Ashton raises sharp criticisms publicly about these gross human rights abuses. The European Union cannot be seen to diminish into a trade partner with dictators and forget about its core values foNCRI – The Iranian regime’s judiciary in Kurdistan province of Iran has lashed a teacher for “insulting a government employee while on duty.”
Payman Nowdinian, a member of teachers association in Kurdistan had been sentenced to 20 lashes by mullahs judiciary in Sanadaj. The sentence was carried out on March 7, 2014.
Along with surge in executions that include minors and women, degrading punishments such as lashing in public and parading people in streets also has increased since Hassan Rouhani has taken office.
On March3, the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (Police) paraded a man in streets of a town in Tehran province to demonstrate ‘police and judiciary toughness’ in public.
The commander of police told a state-run news agency: ‘After hard work by the state security forces and intelligence measures taken, an evil person was arrested and … paraded in the streets of town of Pishva as punishment, and to demonstrate the toughness of police and the judiciary.”
On January 22, three university students were lashed in public in the city of Shahrekord after bogus accusations of selling and drinking alcoholic beverages.
The three, all studying Management at Shahrekord Azad University, were convicted of charges trumped up by regime officials, classmates said. The three students were lashed in a crowded area of the city.
On February 5, dozens were arrested for ‘disrupting the public security and order’ in Tehran and paraded on the same day in Tehran Tajrish Square.
On February 2, thee Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (Police) paraded a man in the northern city of Rasht a day after his arrest. The man identified by his initials as A. B. had been charged with “disrupting the public security order.”
The head of police in the city, Mehrdad Mehregan, said the man had been arrested a day before and was paraded on February 2 in one of main streets in the city based on a order by judiciary officials.
In December, The Iranian regime lashed a man in public in town of Tokab in Western Azerbaijan province of Iran. The young man named Hussein Khosravi was lashed 80 times in public by the Iranian regime’s torturers.
Another man was whipped 70 lashes in public on August 29 outside his home in the city of Saveh. According to the report by state-run news network the man had been arrested on drug related charges.
freedom and democracy and human rights.”