08/12/2023
Harrowing Human Rights Violations Persist in Iran Ahead of Human Rights Day
As the world prepares to commemorate Human Rights Day, the Iranian population continues to endure severe hardships. The struggle for basic rights in Iran is met with abhorrent brutality, ranging from arbitrary detentions to unspeakable forms of torture and executions. Amnesty International’s report on sexual torture and Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI) report on pharmacological torture in prisons sheds light on the appalling conditions faced by individuals.
In 2023 alone, the Islamic regime in Iran carried out over 700 executions, encompassing political detainees and those apprehended under alleged drug-related charges. Shockingly, the list of individuals sentenced to execution continues to expand, necessitating urgent global intervention. The weekly update, by CFPPI, of the political prisoners condemned to execution serves as a distressing indicator of the ongoing crisis.
One of the gravest concerns is the regime’s use of clandestine methods, such as employing “silent death” through pharmacological torture—a hidden yet horrifying reality highlighted in the recent report by the CFPPI. https://wp.me/p9yWrK-6W7
CFPPI urges governments worldwide and international organizations, including the United Nations and the European Union, to take concrete and effective steps to exert pressure on the Islamic regime in Iran to end the relentless executions, release all political prisoners and hold the regime accountable for 44 years of crimes against humanity. CFPI invites you to stand in solidarity with political prisoners and their families and demand global action against torture imprisonment and execution.
On the occasion of Human Rights Day, three organizations—International Committee Against Execution (ICAE), Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI), and Free Them Now (FTN)—Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran, collectively issue the following statement.
For more information and media inquiries, please contact:
Shiva Mahbobi, Spokeswoman
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
shiva.mahbobi@gmail.com Tel: +447572356661
www.cfppi.org
December 10: Let’s step out together to stop the executions in Iran!
December 10th of December, the Human Rights Day, is a good time to raise our voices together, against the oppression and execution machine in Iran, which has claimed many victims in recent weeks. We are witnessing an unprecedented growth of executions in Iran. Although the Islamic Republic has always carried out executions since its coming to power, there has been a significant increase in executions, in the shadow of the on-going war in Gaza, with the aim of pushing back the people’s revolution.
At least 120 people have been executed since the beginning of October 2023. A number of those who were arrested during the protests of recent years, including Milad Zohra Vand (21 years old) and Hani Albushahbazi (22 years old) and Kamran Reaei (33 years old) are among those executed. Also, the death sentence of a number of political and religious prisoners who have been in prison for many years has been carried out recently.
In this regard, the recent execution of Qasim Abesteh and Ayoub Karimi can be mentioned. Dozens of imprisoned protestors and political prisoners are at risk of execution, including Anwar Khazri, Kamran Sheikheh, Khosrow Basharat, Davoud Abdullahi and Farhad Salimi. Saman Yasin, the protesting rap singer, has been tortured and subjected to mock execution in prison. Hamid Reza Azari, a child criminal who was only 16 years old at the time of his arrest, was recently executed.
Toomaj Salehi, who was recently released from prison on bail following the global protests, reported in a video about his mental and physical beating and torture. Toomaj unfortunately was arrested again last week after the release of this video. Prisoners are subjected to “silent execution” by being deprived of needed medicine and treatment, or being transferred to psychiatric “treatment centres” and forced to use psychoactive drugs.
We, the three organisations, Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran, Committee Against Execution and Free Them Now, Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran, call on all people in Iran and the world, especially families who are a strong pillar against executions, to protest against the growing wave of the Islamic regime executions, on the occasion of December 10th International Human Rights Day, and act immediately to stop the machine of repression and killings, in Iran. You can respond to this call by setting up pickets or street performances, issuing statements or sending letters of protest to the authorities and officials of the Islamic regime, holding seminars and photo exhibitions, as well as publishing photos and videos in opposition to the executions in Iran. It is important that the Islamic Republic knows that the peoples of the world not only are not silent about the crimes of this regime, but together with the people of Iran, they want to end the oppression and the criminal life of the Islamic regime. Our demands are:
· An immediate end to executions in Iran,
· An immediate cancellation of all death sentences
· The unconditional release of all political and ideological prisoners.
As far as governments and international institutions are concerned, although we have seen reactions from the United Nations Human Rights Office and some western governments as well as the European Union, such reactions, which basically don’t go beyond words, are not enough at all. We demand the isolation and global boycott of the Islamic regime. The Islamic Republic should be expelled from the international community not only because of the crimes it has committed against the people of Iran, but also as a supporter of Islamic terrorism in the world (supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.).
At the very least, our demand is that in protest against the growing wave of executions in Iran, all ambassadors of European governments should be recalled from Tehran. We also want the European Parliament’s decision to include the IRGC in the list of terrorist organizations to be implemented as soon as possible and for this to be accepted by the Council of Ministers of this Union. We ask all the peoples of the world and labour unions and humanitarian organizations to put pressure on relevant governments to implement these demands.
Once again, we loudly declare that the death penalty is state murder and a heinous and inhumane punishment. For the Islamic regime, execution is a direct weapon for suppressing the society. The death penalty should be abolished, and its abolition in different countries of the world has been a sign of progress for human societies. Iran can also join the rank of countries without the death penalty by pushing back and overthrowing the Islamic regime. This is possible if we all join together!
Signed by;
International Committee Against Execution (ICAE)
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran(CFPPI)
Free Them Now (FTN)-Campaign to free jailed workers in Iran