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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.

Iran: Man Hanged for Drug Offenses


Public execution, Iran
A man who was sentenced to death for drug charges, hanged on Monday morning at Dastgerd Prison in the Iranian city of Isfahan. 

According to IHR sources, prisoner Abdollah Ghanbarzehi, 29, was executed on April 15, 2019. He was from the Iranian southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. 

A well-informed source told IHR, “Ablollah was arrested with 9 kilograms of drugs in the city of Isfahan.” Baluchi Activists’ Campaign published Abdollah’s photos (See below) and mentioned that he was arrested on September 28, 2017. 

The new amendment to Iranian Anti-drug law which was enforced on November 14, 2017, includes a mechanism to limit the use of the death penalty and reduce the sentences of those sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The law was retroactive and could potentially save many prisoners’ lives after their case-review process. 

The amendment specifies that the death penalty should be limited to those who have been carrying or have used weapons while trafficking, sponsoring or organizing narco gangs and inducting children under the age of 18 or people with intellectual disabilities into such gangs. Those with a prior prison term of more than 15 years would also be excluded from the commutations under the amendment. 

Following the enforcement of Iranian Anti-drug law in November 2017, the number of drug-related executions is significantly decreased compared to the past years. IHR’s Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran shows that the number of people executed in 2018 for drug charges, is significantly reduced. 24 people were executed on drug charges in 2018. The number for 2017 was 230. However, there is a risk that a new wave of drug-related executions starts after completing the case review process. 

4 hanged in the cities of Gorgan, Isfahan and Shiraz


Iranian regime has executed at least 4 prisoners since April, in the prisons of Gorgan, Adelabad and Dastgerd. 

On Monday, April 15, 2019, a prisoner identified as Abdal Zahedani (Ghanbarzehi) was executed on drug related charges in Dastgerd Prison of Isfahan, central Iran. 

Also on Thursday, April 11, 2019, the Iranian regime executed 2 prisoners in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, south-central Iran. 

The victims, Taha Shirdokht and Kazem Minayi were found guilty of drug charges and murder. 

They were transfered to solitary confinement along with 4 other death row prisoners on April 7. 

Just days prior to that, on April 7, 2019, a prisoner identified as 36-year-old Davoud Mohebzadeh was hanged in the central prison of Gorgan, northern Iran. He had been transfered to solitary confinement on April 6. No information is available on the fate of 4 other prisoners. 

Iran has remained among the world’s top 5 executioners despite an overall drop in the number of death sentences, according to a new report by Amnesty International. 

The Iranian regime has a dismal report card of at least 286 executions in 2018, including the execution of 10 political prisoners, four women and seven individuals who were sentenced to death for crimes they allegedly committed as children. 

The real numbers were likely to be much higher as use of capital punishment in Iran is often shrouded in secrecy. 

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, April 17, 2019


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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