|
2007-03-02
UNPO
The Hague,
02 March 2007
– UNPO remains deeply concerned about the
persecution of the Baloch community by Iranian authorities.
On Monday 19 February 2007 Nasrollah
Shanbehzai was executed by public hanging following what reports
indicate was an unlawful trial in Iran. Mr. Shanbehzai was arbitrarily
arrested following violence in Zahedan on 14 February 2007, after which he
was reportedly tortured by Iranian police until he agreed to sign a written
confession of guilt.
On 15 February 2007 Mr. Shanbehzai was
sentenced to death following a brief trial, during which an independent
defense lawyer was not offered.
The execution of Mr. Shanbehzai is not the
first persecution committed against the Baloch community in
Iran, rather his
execution represents yet another in a growing number of violations and
routine executions committed by Iranian authorities in the past year alone.
UNPO strongly condemns
the use of public hangings and what can only be seen as blatant violations
of human rights afforded in international humanitarian law.
Therefore UNPO has appealed to Ms.
Hélène Flautre, Chairperson of European Parliament Subcommittee on
Human Rights, Ms. Angelika Beer, Chairwoman of European
Parliament Delegation for Relations with Iran, Ms. Louise Arbour,
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prof. Philip
Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, Ms. Yanine Poc, Head of Asia Desk at
the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Mr.
Luis Alfonso de Alba, President of the UN Human Rights Council to:
Urge Iranian authorities to immediately halt
further persecution of the Baloch community and the execution of its people;
Remind
Iranian authorities of their obligations under internationally recognised
standards of Human Rights; and
Raise
issues regarding the Government of
Iran’s practices with
particular attention to their policy towards minority communities and
indigenous peoples, such as the Baloch community.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran: Fear of imminent execution/ torture of Iran’s Baluchi
minority
URGENT ACTION
http://web.amnesty.org/
Iran: Fear of imminent execution/ torture of Iran’s Baluchi minority
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/034/2007
22 March 2007
UA 76/07 Fear of imminent execution/ torture
IRAN Sa’id Qanbar Zahi (m), aged 17 ]
Javad Naroui (m) ]
Ma’soud Nosrat Zahi (m) ]
Houshang Shahnavazi (m) ] All members of Iran’s Baluchi minority
Yahya Sohrab Zahi (m) ]
Ali Reza Brahoui (m) ]
Abdalbeki Kahra Zahi (also ]
known as Abdalmalek) (m)
The seven people named above, including a boy aged 17, are at risk of
imminent execution. Amnesty International fears that at least five of the
group may have been tortured into "confessing" to involvement in a number of
violent crimes carried out in the town of Tasuki, in Sistan-Baluchistan
province, southern Iran, in March 2006.
Information provided to Amnesty International suggests that the seven may
have been arrested on account of their family ties with those suspected of
having been involved in blowing up a bus carrying security officials from
the Revolutionary Guard on 14 February 2007, in which at least 14 people
were killed.
According to media reports, Ali Reza Brahoui, Yahya SohrabZahi, Sa’id
QanbarZahi, Houshang Shahnavazi and Ma’soud NosratZahi all made
"confessions" on Iranian state television to a number of crimes which
allegedly took place in Sistan-Baluchistan, including attacks and
carjackings. The televised "confessions" linked an Iranian Baluchi armed
opposition group, Jondallah, also known as the Iranian Peoples’ Resistance
Movement (Jonbesh-e Moqavemat-e Mardom-e Iran), to these crimes, and to the
attack on the bus on 14 February.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the five who "confessed" have been
tortured, including by having bones in their hands and feet broken; by being
‘branded' with a red-hot iron and by an electric drill applied to their
limbs, shredding their muscles.
According to a BBC report, Iranian state television said that Sa’id Qanbar
Zahi was tried on 11 March 2006. Amnesty International has no other
information concerning the legal proceedings faced by the seven, but there
are concerns that they may have faced summary trials, and may not have had
access to defence lawyers.
Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of
governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but
opposes the death penalty in all cases as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment. Moreover, Iran is a state party to international
treaties which prohibit the execution of those under the age of 18 at the
time of their alleged offence.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Iran's Baluchi minority lives mainly in the southeast of the country, and is
believed to constitute between one and three percent of the total population
of around 70 million. Mainly Sunni Muslims, they have for many years
complained of discrimination by the Iranian authorities.
Jondallah, or the Iranian Peoples’ Resistance Movement, has carried out a
number of armed attacks on Iranian officials and has on occasion killed
hostages. It reportedly seeks to defend the rights of the Baluchi people,
though government officials have claimed that it is involved in drug
smuggling
and has ties to terrorist groups and to foreign governments. Amnesty
International condemns unequivocally the killing of hostages and urges
Jondallah to desist from this or similar practices immediately.
According to a BBC report on 15 March, Sistan-Baluchistan television has
stated that at least two people have been hanged in connection with the
attack on the bus carrying Revolutionary Guards. Five days after it took
place, an Iranian Baluchi man, Nasrollah Shanbeh-Zehi, was executed in
connection with the attack. He was shown on Iranian television "confessing"
to the bombing on
behalf of Jondallah and was executed in public at the site of the bombing.
It is thought that the other man allegedly executed in connection with the
attack may have been Ahmad Sariz, allegedly a member of Jondallah, who was
reportedly hanged on 14 March. Reports indicate that at least 17 other
individuals have either been sentenced to death or executed in connection
with an attack in
Tasuki in March 2006, in which up to 22 people were reportedly killed.
In an interview with the Iranian newspaper ‘Ayyaran on 17 March, Hossein Ali
Shahryari, a parliamentarian representing the city of Zahedan, stated that
prisons in Sistan-Baluchistan province hold more than 700 people under
sentence of death. In 2006, at least 177 people were executed in Iran,
including at least four women and four people who were under 18 at the time
of the alleged
offence. Possibly as many as one-third of these were members of Iran’s
Baluchi minority.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English,
Persian or your own language:
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility
of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but
opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment;
- calling on the Iranian authorities to commute immediately the death
sentences of these seven individuals (naming them) and of anyone else facing
execution in Iran;
- reminding the authorities of their commitment to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that “sentence of death
shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of
age”, and calling on the Iranian authorities to implement the
recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child
by immediately stopping the executions of those who were under the age of 18
at the time of the alleged offence;
- expressing concern at reports that they may have faced torture, in
contravention of Iran’s own laws and its international obligations;
- expressing concern at reports that the men have been arrested for being
related to those suspected of carrying out armed attacks against government
security officials;
- seeking details of the charges and any trial proceedings that the
individuals named may have faced.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Republic
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Shahid Keshvar Doost Street, Tehran.
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 251 7774 2228 (mark “For the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah
Khamenei")
Email: Via website, in English: http://www.leader.ir/langs/EN/index.php?p=sendletter
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 3390 4986 (please keep trying; send appeals by post or email if
you cannot get through)
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: For the
attention of Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Governor of Sistan and Balochistan province
Mr Dahmarde, Governor
Fax: +98 541 3231990
E-mail: info@sb-ostan.ir
Salutation: Dear Sir
and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if sending appeals after 3 May 2007.
AI Index: MDE 13/034/2007 22 March 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2007-04-05
http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=6541
The Hague,
5 April 2007
– The UNPO remains deeply concerned about the fate of nine Balochs who have
been arrested by the Iranian authorities, and appeals to halt further
executions.
On 14
February 2007 a bus carrying security officials from the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard was attacked in
Sistan-Balochistan
Province in southern
Iran, leaving at least
14 people dead. This indefensible act of violence appears however to have
been followed by a campaign of extensive human rights violations, targeting
members of local Baloch communities and their activists.
Recent
reports suggest two Balochis were executed within days of the attacks, with
human rights organisations such as Amnesty International also reporting
concern about nine additional Balochis presently in detention and believed
to be facing imminent execution:
Mr. Sa’id
Qanbar Zahi
(17) ,
Mr. Ismail Vafai (21), Mr. Asad Vafai
(27), Mr. Javad Narou, Mr.,
Ma’soud Nosrat Zahi, Mr. Houshang Shahnavazi,
Mr. Yahya Sohrab Zahi, Mr. Ali Reza
Brahoui, Mr. Abdalbek Kahra Zahi
All believed
to have been arrested because of family ties to individuals linked to the 14
February attacks. Media reports also indicate that five members of this
group have recently appeared on Iranian state television “confessing” to a
range of violent crimes that occurred in the Province in March of 2006. 17
other individuals are believed already to have been executed in connection
with these events.
UNPO and its
members condemn all acts of violence, but fear Iranian authorities are using
these events as a pretext to continue their oppression of the Baloch
minority community. The above sentences of death have all followed from
highly irregular trials, falling well short of internationally recognised
standards of justice, and reports suggest that the televised “confessions”
may, as is in other similar cases elsewhere in
Iran, have been
extracted through torture.
UNPO has therefore
appealed to
Prof.
Philip
Alston,
UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions,
Ms. Louise
Arbour,
United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Helene Flautre
MEP, Chairperson of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human
Rights, Ms. Angelika Beer MEP, Chairwomen of
European
Parliament
Delegation for Relations with Iran, Mr. Romano Maria La Russa
MEP, Vice-Chairman of
European
Parliament
Delegation for Relations with Iran, Ms. Christa Prets MEP,
Vice-Chairwoman of
European
Parliament Delegation for Relations with Iran,
and Ms. Yanine Poc, Head of Asia Desk in Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to:
- Urge
Iran to end
immediately its use of executions as a weapon of fear and oppression, in
particular where minors are involved;
- Remind
Iran that serious charges of terrorism must be examined by open and
transparent courts, in full accord with internationally recognised standards
of justice;
- Continue
your efforts to visit Iran in order to evaluate and report on its use of the
death penalty, in particular in cases involving activists belonging to their
many minority communities; and
- Raise the
issue of minority rights whenever your mandate brings you into contact with
Iranian officials.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URGENT ACTION
Iran: Further
information on fear of imminent execution/ torture
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/066/2007
05 June 2007
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130662007
Further
Information on UA 76/07 (MDE 13/034/2007, 22 March 2007) Fear of imminent
execution/ torture
IRAN Sa'id Qanbar Zahi (m), aged 17 ]
Javad Naroui (m) ]
Ma'soud Nosrat Zahi (m) ]
Houshang Shahnavazi (m) ] members of Iran’s Baluchi minority
Yahya Sohrab Zahi (m) ]
Ali Reza Brahoui (m) ]
Abdalbek Kahra Zahi (also know as Abdalmalek) (m) ]
Seventeen-year-old Sa’id Qanbar Zahi was hanged on 27 May inside the prison
of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province. International law
absolutely prohibits the use of the death penalty against child offenders.
The other six men named above remain at risk of imminent execution.
All seven men were sentenced to death in March and are members of Iran’s
Baluchi community. It appears that they may have been arrested because of
their family ties to those suspected of involvement in blowing up a bus
carrying members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps on 14 February in
Zahedan, in which at least 14 people were killed.
According to local press reports, Sa’id Qanbar Zahi and four of the other
six men "confessed" on Iranian state television to a number of crimes which
allegedly took place in Sistan-Baluchistan, including bomb attacks against
officials, carjackings and murder. Some or all were also accused of
involvement in hostage taking follow a March 2006 bomb attack in the town of
Tasuki. The televised "confessions" linked an Iranian Baluchi armed
opposition group, Jondallah, also known as the Iranian Peoples’ Resistance
Movement (Jonbesh-e Moqavemat-e Mardom-e Iran), to these crimes, and to the
14 February bus bombing. There are unconfirmed reports that the five who
"confessed" were tortured: this included having bones in their hands and
feet broken; being "branded" with a red-hot iron; and having an electric
drill applied to their limbs, shredding their muscles.
There is no new information about Javad Naroui, Ma’soud Nosrat Zahi,
Houshang Shahnavazi, Yahya Sohrab Zahi, Ali Reza Brahoui and Abdalbek Kahra
Zahi.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Sa’id Qanbar Zahi was the second child offender to be executed in Iran this
year. On 22 April, 19-year-old Mohammad Mousavi was reportedly hanged in
Shiraz. He had apparently been sentenced to qesas (retribution) for a murder
committed when he was 16 years old. The execution of child offenders - those
under 18 at the time of the offence - is absolutely prohibited under
international law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to
which Iran is a state party. Despite this, Iran continues to sentence to
death, and execute, child offenders. Amnesty International has recorded the
executions of 24 child offenders in Iran since 1990, 10 of whom were under
18 when executed. At least four child offenders were executed during 2006.
Iran’s Baluchi minority lives mainly in the southeast of the country, and is
believed to constitute between one and three percent of the total population
of around 70 million. Mainly Sunni Muslims, they have for many years
complained of discrimination by the Iranian authorities.
Jondallah has carried out a number of armed attacks on Iranian officials and
has on occasion killed hostages. It reportedly seeks to defend the rights of
the Baluchi people, though government officials have claimed that it is
involved in drug smuggling and terrorist activities and has ties to foreign
governments.
There have been widespread arrests of members of the Baluchi minority in the
wake of such attacks. According to a 15 March BBC report, Sistan-Baluchistan
television stated that at least two people were hanged in connection with
the 14 February attack on the bus carrying Revolutionary Guards. At least 17
other people are reported to have been either sentenced to death or executed
in connection with the March 2006 attack in Tasuki, in which up to 22 people
were reportedly killed. In an interview with the Iranian newspaper ‘Ayyaran
on 17 March, parliamentarian Hossein Ali Shahryari stated that prisons in
Sistan-Baluchistan province held more than 700 people under sentence of
death.
In 2006, at least 177 people were executed in Iran. Possibly as many as a
third of these were members of Iran’s Baluchi minority.
AI Index: MDE 13/066/2007 5 June 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran: End child executions
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: MDE 13/078/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 119
Embargo Date: 27 June 2007 00:01 GMT
Iran: End child executions
"My daughter Delara is accused of a crime that she did not commit… Help me
and help us until justice is properly served. There are no signs of humanity
and justice in here." father of Delara Darabi who is awaiting execution in
Iran, 11 January 2007
Amnesty International is calling on Iran's judicial and political
authorities to order an immediate moratorium to prevent further executions
of child offenders and to amend the laws so no children who commit crimes
can be sentenced to death. In a new report, the organization said at least
71 child offenders were awaiting execution in Iran, where more child
offenders have been executed than in any other country since 1990.
"Iran stands virtually alone as a country in which child offenders - persons
under 18 at the time of the crime of which they were convicted - are put to
death," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa
Programme. "It is high time that the Iranian authorities put an end to this
shameful practice - for once and for all - and bring themselves in line with
the rest of the international community, which has long recognized the
obscenity of executing those who commit crimes while children."
In the report, Iran: The last executioner of children, Amnesty International
lists the names of the 71 child offenders known to be facing the death
penalty, but notes that the total number could be much higher as many death
penalty cases in Iran are believed to go unreported. Of the 24 child
offenders recorded as having been executed since 1990, 11 were still under
the age of 18 at the time of their execution while the others were either
kept on death row until they had reached 18 or were convicted and sentenced
after reaching that age.
"The Iranian authorities deny that they execute
children but so far this year we have already recorded two executions of
child offenders," said Malcolm Smart. "Mohammad Mousavi, aged 19, was
executed in April for a crime committed when he was 16, and Sa'id Qanbar
Zahi, hanged on 27 May 2007 at Zahedan prison, was only 17 when he was
sentenced to death with six other members of Iran's Baluchi minority two
months earlier."
The execution of Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh, sentenced for "crimes against
chastity" and hanged at the age of 16 on August 2004, is one of seven cases
highlighted by the report. A day after her execution, a judiciary official
told a newspaper that she was 22 years old. Rajabi's case highlights the
failure of the Iranian judicial system to protect children and provides
further evidence that some child offenders are executed in Iran even before
they reach the age of 18. The report also lists the cases of 17 other people
who were executed for crimes committed when they were under 18.
Although executions of child offenders are few compared to the total number
of executions in Iran, they highlight the government’s disregard for its
commitments and obligations under international law, which prohibits in all
circumstances the use of the death penalty against child offenders. Apart
from Iran, the only countries in which executions of child offenders have
been recorded since 2003 are China, Sudan and Pakistan; though the Chinese
and Pakistani authorities insisted that those executed were aged 18 or over
at the time of the crime. In each year the number of child offenders
executed in Iran exceeded the total number of all other executions of child
offenders.
Some members of the government and the judiciary are also believed to favour
at least reducing, if not abolishing, the death penalty for child offenders,
but progress is painfully slow. For example, a draft law proposed by the
judiciary in 2001 could pave the way for the abolition of the death sentence
for minors or at least result in a reduction in the number of offences for
which child offenders could be sentenced to death, but the draft law is
still under consideration by the political and judicial authorities.
Amid the horror of child executions and the wider problem of the death
penalty in Iran, there are some positive signs, particularly, the emergence
of a growing movement in favour of the abolition of the death penalty for
child offenders. This is being led by a courageous band of human rights
defenders and activists within Iran, and it has already achieved some
notable successes.
"Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unreservedly for anyone,
regardless of their age and regardless of the nature of the crime or the
character of the condemned," said Malcolm Smart. "Every execution is an
affront to human dignity - a human rights violation of premeditated cruelty
that denies the right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights."
/ENDS
Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org
For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org
|