Iran Hangs Five, Including Woman; Sentences Another To Death After Nine Years

The General and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Mazandaran Province announced that a prisoner had been executed in Sari Prison, reported the state-run ILNA news agency on July 5, 2018.

Younes Hosseini Alami said that the convicted person, identified as L.M., was sentenced to death for murder, and was executed in the front yard of Sari Prison, in Mazandaran Province, north of Iran.

Earlier this month, the prosecutor of Sistan and Baluchestan Province announced the execution of Naeem Manduzehi, father of nine, on July 7, on charges of murder in the central prison of Zahedan, southeastern Iran.

In yet another case on Sunday, July 8, the sentences of three Sunni religious prisoners in Urmia Prison, which had remained in limbo since December 2009, were announced.

Anwar Khezri and Khosrow Besharat were each sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for participating in a crime scene and Kamran Shikheh was sentenced to death.

These prisoners, along with four other Sunni prisoners, have been in prison since December 7, 2009.

They did not have the opportunity and the right to defend themselves in the court as they weren’t allowed to elect and choose their own lawyers.

Woman Hanged At Urmia Prison

On the morning of Wednesday July 4, 2018, at least three prisoners were hanged at Urmia Prison, northwest of Iran. The victims who have not been identified yet include two men and a woman. They were all found guilty of murder.

The list of death-row female prisoners who have been detained in the Central Prison of Orumieh includes: Chenar Salehi, Yasna Sadeqi, Arasteh Ranjbar, Nazdar Vatankhah, Tahmineh Danesh, Farideh Hassanpour, Shelir Khosravi, Somayeh Ebrahimzadeh, and Zeinab Sekanvand who was under 18 at the time of committing the crime.

It is not known yet which one of these women was hanged in the Central Prison of Urmia , in the morning of Wednesday, July 4, 2018.

The conditions in the women’s ward of the Central Prison of Urmia is abysmal because of over-crowded cells and lack of hygiene.

The last time a woman was hanged in Iran was on January 30, 2018, when Mahboubeh Mofidi, 25, was executed in the Prison of Noshahr in northern Iran.

According to Amnesty International’s latest report, among all the recorded executions worldwide last year, more than 51 percent were carried out in Iran.

Although second, behind China in terms of executions, Iran “carried out 84 percent of the global total number of executions.”

The number of executions in Iran last year was 507, “accounting for 60 percent of all confirmed executions in the region.” Of the 507 people executed, “501 were men and six were women. At least five juvenile offenders were executed, and 31 executions were carried out publicly.”

Amnesty International believes that hundreds of other death sentences may have been imposed in Iran but were unable to confirm figures. Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, who heads the Iran Human Rights Organization based in Norway, said in an interview that some “70 to 80 percent of executions in Iran are not reported.”

Amnesty International reported that the executions last year were carried out for murder (240); drug trafficking (205); murder and rape 4; robbery 11; “spreading corruption on earth” 2; rape (male on female rape) 16; kidnapping and murder 3; moharebeh (politically motivated) (2); and 19 e for offenses that could not be confirmed.”

Among those executed were five who committed crimes when they were under 18 years old. Sentencing a person to death for a crime committed when they were juvenile is a violation of international law.

Source: Iran Human Rights Monitor, July 11-12, 2018

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