Oct. 24
IRAN----execution
Convicted cop killer, drug trafficker hanged in Iran
A man convicted of drug trafficking and another of killing a police officer
have been hanged in separate cities in Iran, local media reported Monday.
The ISNA news agency said the man sentenced on drug charges was hanged in the
northwestern city of Ardebil.
The Fars news agency reported that the man convicted of killing a police
officer eight years ago was hanged in the southern town of Jam. He was
identified as Ali Rafipour.
The hanging brings to 233 the number of executions in Iran so far this year,
according to an AFP tally based on media and official reports.
Human Rights Watch counted 388 executions in Iran in 2010, while Amnesty
International put the figure at 252, ranking the Islamic republic second only
to China in the number of people put to death last year.
Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order, and that
it is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are among the crimes
punishable by death in Iran.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
**********************
“Prison Authorities Say He Won’t Need Warm Winter Clothes As He Will Be
Executed”
Eghbal Moradi, father of Zanyar Moradi, a Kurdish prisoner at Rajaee Shahr
Prison in Karaj, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that
the Supreme Court upheld his son’s death sentence. “My relatives went to prison
this week to bring Zanyar warm clothing, as the cold season has come. But
prison officials told them that he would not need the clothes as his death
sentence has been upheld. They told my relatives this explicitly, adding that
they would be informed of the execution date,” Eghbal Moradi told the Campaign.
Moradi also told the Campaign that the execution orders have not been served to
his son’s lawyer. Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi are two men from Mariwan who
were sentenced to public hanging on Wednesday, 22 December 2010 at Branch 15 of
Tehran Revolutionary Court, with Judge Salavati presiding, on charges of
“membership in the Komala Party,” and “involvement in the murder of Mariwan
Friday Imam’s son.” Both prisoners stated in a published letter that they had
been forced to make false confessions about the murder under torture and
threats of rape. Zanyar, 21, and Loghman, 25, are accused of murdering the
Mariwan Friday Imam’s son on the night of 5 August 2009.
Regarding the charge of murder, Eghbal Moradi said: “I do not accept this
accusation at all. The chain murders in Kurdistan, and particularly in Mariwan,
have been carried out by the regime itself. Someone by the name of Hiva Yatab
who is a member of IRGC’s official staff has not only murdered the Friday
Imam’s son, but several other individuals. But the regime chooses to connect
the murders to PJAK or other groups. Unfortunately, in order to cover up the
murders they commit, the IRGC has had to fabricate scenarios and introduce
other individuals as murderers.”
“Unfortunately, I am far away and do not have any contact with his lawyer. I
sent one of my friends to his lawyer and he said that he had not yet received
the upheld death sentence ruling,” said Eghbal Moradi, who currently resides in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
“I expect no more of the Iranian Judiciary. This isn’t only about my son, as he
is not the only one who will be executed on a daily basis. One cannot expect
more of the Iranian Judiciary, as they issue rulings based on their own
regulations and thinking. But I ask human rights activists and organizations to
stop such unfounded executions,” added Eghbal Moradi.
Moradi also spoke about his son’s deprivation of visitation and telephone
contact with his family, saying, “My relatives went to Rajaee Shahr Prison in
Karaj several times, begging to have a short meeting with him, but the
authorities said that it’s impossible and he cannot have any visitors. They
went again this week to take him warm clothing when they faced this news.”
Osman Moradi, resident of Mariwan and father of Loghman Moradi, the other death
row prisoner, told the Campaign that he has no information about his son or his
potential execution. “I have not heard from him in months. We do not have
visits or phone calls. His lawyer doesn’t know anything, either. They did not
tell me or his lawyer anything,” he said.
In an earlier interview with the Campaign, Osman Moradi spoke about his son’s
charges: “During his first nine months inside the Intelligence Office Prison,
there was no mention of a murder charge in his case file. But they took him to
the Intelligence Ministry again and kept him there for 25 days. He was tortured
and abused to the point where he admitted to the murder; I mean that he
accepted it in order to free himself of those conditions. It took them 17
months to get that confession out of him.”
(source: Iran Human Rights)
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