FAMILIES preparing to say a final farewell ahead of a mass execution were told by prison officials that they were too late and their loved ones were already dead.

By KATIE MANSFIELD

Express, Aug 2, 2016 – Relatives of prisoners were told to have the last visit with their loved ones before they would be hanged, but when they arrived they were told the inmates had already been hanged.
Instead of saying goodbye, the families were told to go to the morgue to collect the bodies.
The mass execution took place at Gohardasht Prison in Iran on Tuesday morning, with at least 20 Sunni inmates hanged, according to some accounts. The accurate number of prisoners being executed has not been verified yet.
Gohardasht Prison has declared a state of emergency and it’s believed the execution was brought forward out of fear of unrest and inmates’ protests.

There’s a long precedent by the regime in first executing prisoners and then informing their families

The mass execution has been slammed by the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), who are fighting for more human rights in the Islamic Republic.
Shahin Gobadi, of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “There’s a long precedent by the regime in first executing prisoners and then informing their families.
“One explanation for this is that the regime is afraid of a public backlash and protests outside the prison by the families to halt the executions.
“It is particularly cruel as none of the mothers and fathers managed to say goodbye to their loved ones.”
Some of the bodies were hastily buried in the Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery.
The prisoners had been moved by security forces hours earlier with reports of inmates hands and feet being chained and their mouths taped shut and heads covered with bags.
It’s believed they were moved to an undisclosed location ahead of the mass execution.
Prison authorities cut off the building’s phone lines and put inmates not on death row on lockdown during the killings.
Maryam Rajavi the Iranian Resistance’s President-elect, said the execution was “an appalling crime against humanity.”
The hangings come during the 28th anniversary of the 1988 executions which thousands of prisoners executed in a series of state-sanctioned killings over a five month period.
Shahram Ahmadi is among the Sunni prisoners executed.
He was wounded in April 2009 at the time of arrest and was reportedly tortured for 43 months in solitary confinement.
In October 2012, he was sentenced to death for waging war on God.
Iran has the highest execution rates in the world.
Earlier this month, hundreds of officials from all over the world gathered in Paris for a Free Iran rally aimed at protesting against the country’s poor human rights records.