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

Comments

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Doctors warn against Tennessee death penalty protocols

Tennessee’s execution protocol is medically unethical and should be revamped before further executions occur, nearly 40 health care professionals said in a letter to Gov. Bill Lee. Like the coalition of faith leaders who asked for a moratorium on executions earlier this month, the physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals who signed the July 28 letter said they were motivated to speak up after the gruesome and botched execution of Tony Carruthers in May. Carruthers spent 90 minutes bleeding and writhing in agony as an attending physician made repeated unsuccessful attempts to insert an IV into the inmate’s chest after being unable to find useable veins in the arms, legs, and feet. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve after the ordeal.

After Nearly 30 Years and a Supreme Court Reversal: Assessing the Likely Result of Richard Glossip’s Oklahoma Retrial

DPN asked Grok for a legal analysis of Richard Glossip’s upcoming murder retrial and its likely disposition. Most likely outcome of Richard Glossip’s retrial: acquittal or a hung jury leading to dismissal or no further prosecution, rather than a conviction for first-degree murder. A conviction remains possible but is the less probable result given the severely damaged core evidence and the state’s own prior admissions. Death is off the table. Case background

Iran executes 20-year-old protester as fears grow for other detainees

Iranian authorities executed 20-year-old protester Arvin Kheirkhah at Shahroud prison on Saturday morning, according to information obtained by Iran International, amid concerns that several other detainees could also face execution. Kheirkhah was arrested during the January protests and sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court on charges including moharebeh , or “waging war against God.” He was transferred to solitary confinement on Wednesday ahead of the execution. His family gathered outside Shahroud prison on Friday night in an attempt to stop the sentence from being carried out. According to information received by Iran International, Kheirkhah told his family in a final conversation: “Don’t let them forget me. We stood up for the liberation of our homeland. Don’t let the path we chose be silenced.”

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog