[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

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)