IRAN, — According to AAED (Association Against Educational Discrimination), along with reports from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, on January 12, 2011, the Revolutionary Court in Tehran announced eight more executions, which were related to drug trafficking and sex crimes. Following that, another ten people were executed in Karaj’s Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison last Wednesday morning, January 19th.
Six more executions were added on January 24th to the total from last month. According to reports by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, among the January 24th executions were Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaie, two Iranian citizens convicted of “Moharebeh” [Enmity against God] and “Membership in the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).” The other four people were executed in Evin and Qods Square in Karaj. They were convicted of “committing sexual crimes.” Also, on 25 January, a 29 year old man who was charged and convicted of “raping a woman” in Yasouj was hanged.
Statistics show that since the 2009 Iranian Presidential election, political prisoners and opposition protesters who were charged with Moharebeh were executed. The number of political prisoners sentenced to death has also increased. Ehsan Fattahian, a Kurdish political prisoner is regarded as the first victim in the series of executions that began after the Presidential election.
In the last 35 days, more than 100 death sentences have been carried out in various parts of Iran. The reason for such an increase is not clear and the judiciary forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have not elaborated on this matter.
Iran, with a population of about 70 million, is rated second in the world after China (that has a population of 1.3 billion people) for its high rate of executions. [Although], based on Iran’s population to execution ratio, it has the highest number of executions in the world; [a fact that has brought] much criticism from human rights organizations.