[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 13



IRAN----executions

Iran regime hangs nine collectively


Iran's fundamentalist regime hanged 9 prisoners collectively on Wednesday in 
Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.

3 of the executed prisoners were identified as Seyyed Mohammad Taheri, Amir 
Khadem Rezaiyan and Saeid Ahmadi.

The victims had been transferred to solitary confinement in the days prior to 
their execution.

More than 270 Members of the European Parliament signed a joint statement on 
Iran last month, calling on the European Union to "condition" its relations 
with Tehran to an improvement of human rights.

The MEPs who were from all the EU Member States and from all political groups 
in the Parliament said they are concerned about the rising number of executions 
in Iran after Hassan Rouhani took office as President 3 years ago.

Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 
2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to 
at least 743 the year before."

"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East 
and North Africa, the human rights group said.

There have been more than 2,400 executions during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as 
President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation 
in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was 
greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the 
executions as examples of "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that 
belong to the people."

(source: NCR-Iran)