Jun 12, 2012

Ahwazi: Prisoners Face Execution


Several Iranian prisoners, including five Ahwazi, are currently threatened with immediate execution.

Below is an article published by Netherlands Aid:

According to reports from Iran 8 prisoners are at imminent danger of execution in Iran. Iran Human Rights asks for the immediate reaction of the international community. “International pressure is the only hope these prisoners have” say the spokesperson of IHR Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. Five Ahwazi Arab political prisoners at imminent danger of public hanging: According to reliable sources from Iran, Five death row Arab political prisoners have been transferred out of their prison ward to an undisclosed location.

In March this year [2012] IHR and other human rights organizations warned against execution of five Ahwazi Arab prisoners. Iranian authorities informed the families of five prisoners from the Arab-dominated Ahwaz province that their sons will be hanged in public “within days” for allegedly killing a security member and wounding another in 2011, a local human rights activist told Al Arabiya on Tuesday [5 June 2012]. The detainees include three brothers – Abdolrahman, Taha, and Jamsheed Haidari – and their cousin Mansour Haidari and Amir Moawya. They were arrested under anti-regime protests in Ahwaz in 2011 and were charged with the murder of a security member. Their families say the prisoners confessed to the murder under torture. International attention was probably the reason why they were not executed in March.

According to reports from Iran, a 28-year-old woman prisoner identified as Maryam (legal name: Safieh Ghafouri) is at imminent danger of execution in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz. The sources report that the execution may take place as early as tomorrow morning. Maryam was charged with murder at the age of 22 and sentenced to death. Her sentence was scheduled to take place for the third time nine days ago, but was postponed for ten days following orders from the Iranian Judiciary. Only an order from the head of the judiciary can stop Maryam’s execution.

According to Iranian state run media two prisoners are scheduled to be executed publicly in the southern Iranian town of Bushehr. The state run Mehr news agency reported that the prisoners are convicted of murder and armed robbery. Name of the prisoners was not mentioned in the report.