Five political prisoners hanged in Tehran

Iran Human Rights, May 9: According to the reports from Iran five political prisoners were executed in Tehran’s Evin prison early this morning.

According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA, four men and one women, all convicted of Moharebeh (at war against the God), were hanged at the Evin prison today.

Four of those executed were the kurdish political prisoners Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili and Shirin Alamhooli, all convicted of membership in PJAK (the Iranian branch of PKK), while the fifth person was Mehdi Eslamian convicted of involvement in a bomb explosion in 2008 in Shiraz.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights condemned today’s executions and said: "None of the five executed today had fair trials and they had been subjected to torture while in the prison". He continued: "We ask the UN, EU and the international community to condemn these execution". He added: "Several other political prisoners are at imminent danger of execution and the world community should let that happen." (Read this article in Farsi.)

Source : Iran Human Rights, May 9, 2010

Farzad Kamangar and four other political prisoners executed at Evin prison today

Committee of Human Rights Reporters - Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam Hooli and Mehdi Islamian were executed this morning, Sunday May 9, 2010.

According to Fars News Agency, as announced by Tehran’s Prosecutor General, the [Iranian citizens] were executed at dawn today.

Minutes after the announcement was made, Farzad Kamangar’s lawyer Khalil Bahramian stated that he has no information regarding the executions and he will be visiting the Prosecutor’s office today to receive more information.

Farzad Kamangar was a Kurdish teacher arrested in 2007. During his months of incarceration, he was exposed to extreme mental and physical torture which he describes in a letter.

He was sentenced to death in February 2008. In a letter written to the head of the judiciary on February 4, 2010, Kamangar requested a retrial.

Mehdi Islamian was arrested on May 4, 2009 and spent six months in solitary confinement. His brother has also been executed.

Shirin Alam Hooli was arrested May 2008 in Tehran and sentenced to death in November 2009.

Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, and Farzad Kamangar were imprisoned since 2006/2007.

Source: Persian2English, May 9, 2010

Iran hangs woman, 4 other 'enemies of God'

Iran hanged on Sunday 5 militants, including a Kurdish woman, convicted of bombing government offices and a gas pipeline to Turkey and described as "enemies of God", state media reported.

The 5, including the woman Shirin Alamhouli, were executed in Tehran's Evin prison, the official IRNA news agency said, quoting a statement from the capital's prosecution office.

The 4 others who were hanged were Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili and Mehdi Eslamian.

Kamangar, Heidarian and Vakili, along with Alamhouli were members of the Kurdish rebel group, PJAK (The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), ISNA news agency said quoting the same statement from the prosecution's office.

Eslamian reportedly belonged to the anti-regime monarchist group, Kingdom Assembly of Iran, which aims to restore the constitutional monarchy that was abolished by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

ISNA said the 5 were convicted of being "moharebs" or "enemies of God" -- a crime punishable by death under Iran's sharia-based Islamic law.

They were also "convicted of carrying out terrorist acts, including bombings of government centres and public properties in several Iranian cities," the prosecutor's office said, according to IRNA.

The prosecution said that the arrests of Vakili, Heidarian and Kamangar was a clear evidence that PJAK had set up "a terrorist and a bombing group by working with people from Kurdish areas" of Iran.

"Heidarian accepted he had links with PJAK and that he was associated with Kamangar for a planned bombing in Tehran," ISNA reported, detailing what it said were his confessions upon his arrest.

"The 3 bombed 2 governors' offices, a department of the commerce ministry in Kermanshah and also blew up a gas pipeline to Turkey," it said.

Police seized explosives, bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-regime leaflets from the 3 men.

ISNA said Alamhouli was arrested for bombing a car in a Tehran parking lot belonging to the elite Revolutionary Guards.

"In her confession, she said she was on a mission for PJAK and police found cables, remote control device and batteries in her bag," ISNA said.

The agency reported that Eslamian was involved in the deadly bombing of a a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz in April 2008 and charged with acting against national security.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has identified Kamangar as a teacher while the European Union had condemned the death sentences against him, Vakili and Heidarian.

PJAK is closely allied with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which operates in Turkey and is listed as a "terrorist" group by Ankara and much of the international community.

The latest hangings bring to at least 61 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on news reports. Last year, at least 270 people were hanged.

Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain public security and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 9, 2010 - Photos courtesy of Iran-Resist.org

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