Nov 17, 2014

Ahwazi: Bodies of Two Activists Found after Secret Execution Eleven Months Ago


Local residents have discovered the bodies of two Ahwazi cultural activists, who were secretly executed by the Iranian authorities in January 2014 - exemplifying the Iranian regime’s long history of burying the bodies of executed activists in undisclosed places, including under concrete. The execution had previously drawn wide condemnation from the international community. The Ahwaz Human Rights Organization claims that these actions further enforce their fear that the regime is involved in the trafficking of organs of the executed campaigners.

 

Below is an article published by the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO):

 

The bodies of Hashem Shaabami and Hadi Rashedi, two cultural activists, have been discovered by local residents eleven months after their secret execution in January 2014.

Ahwazi human rights activists reported that local eyewitnesses from Joveji village, 7 kilometers away from Ahwaz, testified that the Iranian security forces buried the bodies of the activists near their village last winter.

Following the execution of Shaabani and Rashedi, the Iranian regime faced a wave of international condemnation as the news of the execution of these two young men was spread by the media. Numerous artists from France, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries wrote poems in different languages following the execution of these campaigners.

Both activists were members of a cultural institute, called "Alhewar" or “dialogue”, and were teachers in Maashour city. In late November 2013, they were transferred from Karoun prison to an undisclosed area, and in January 2014, their families were informed with the news of their execution.

 

Burying the bodies of activists in cities other than their own is common in Ahwaz. Last year the bodies of other activists, three Heidary brothers and Ali Sharifi (Naami) from Ahwaz, who were executed in 2012, were found near Baghmalek in a ditch under tons of concrete.

 

The place of their burial was revealed to their families a year and half after their execution. Also in June 2014, the graves of Ali Chebeshat and Sayed Ali Mosavi, two other Ahwazi Arab activists, were discovered in Ramhormoz city after their secret execution. After the release of the execution news, the security force, took the families to Rahmormoz city and showed them the burial place.

Ahwaz Human Right Organization (AHRO) condemns this inhumane act of burying the executed activist's bodies in undisclosed places and burying their bodies under concrete. AHRO also calls upon the international community to express its concern regarding the recent Fatwa, which states that donating executed activists body parts is permitted by Shiat Scholars. This outrageous and illegal statement has been spreading all around the Iranian governmental and non-governmental websites.

AHRO believes that the Iranian regime’s actions of not delivering the bodies of executed activists to their families and burying them in undisclosed places under tones of concretes enforces AHRO's doubts about organ trafficking of executed activists.

AHRO appeals to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, and international human rights organizations to put serious pressure on the Iranian officials in order to stop the executions, to deliver the bodies of executed activists to their families and conduct investigations on the possibility of organ trafficking of executed activists.