The Death Penalty

Since the declaration of the Islamic Republic in 1979 thousands of executions have been commited. Amnesty International think there have been far more than declared by the Iranian regime. Numerous sentences are imposed after processes, that do not correspond to the international standards of a fair and legal proceeding.

According to Amnesty International there have been (known to them)

• 1'718 executed death sentences in China (1.3 billion population)
• 346 executions in Iran (73 million population)
• 102 executions in Saudi Arabia
• 36 executions in Pakistan

If you put these numbers into context with the population it shows that there have been 1.3 executions per 1 million people in China and 4.7 per 1 million people in Iran. That is 3.6 times as many executions.

Political Prisoners

An unknown number of executed people are (presumed to be) political enemies of the government, who have been tried and secretly executed for their non-violent opposition or their religious beliefs. In the 1980s thousands of people were killed in mass executions after corrupt court hearings. Political prisoners apparently do not have the right to appeal or to make sure there have been no procedural errors. Amnesty International is in possession of reports showing confessions forced through torture of political enemies. There is no case known to the organisation where an accused, standing before a revolutionary tribunal because of a political view, had an attorney.

Minors

By signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Iran committed itself to not imposing the death penalty on adolescents under 18 years. The relevant changes to the law are still pending. Young offenders can still be sentenced to death by special juvenile courts and executed, which happens several times every year. In 2008 Iran was the only country where the death penalty was imposed on minors; the eight executed youths were aged between 15 and 17 at the time they comitted their crime.

Freedom of press

According to the international organisation "Reporters without Borders" Iran has become the biggest prison for journalists in the world. Since the beginning of the protests in mid-june 2009 the number of imprisoned journalists in Iran has risen from 8 to more than 33. Thus the country has clearly passed the global list of leading countries with opressive regimes like China and Cuba. The organisation also refers to the fact that the journalists are apparently exposed to torture and abuse.

Link to Reporters without Borders:
http://www.rsf.org/en-rapport153-Iran.html

Link to Amnesty International:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/iran

Link to Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iran