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Iran | Innocent woman dies of heart attack before reaching the gallows; lifeless body hanged nevertheless

Clerical regime did not refrain from hanging the lifeless body of the victim

The woman hanged in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj last Wednesday had already suffered a fatal heart attack before her turn for being hanged.

Zahra Esma’ili’s lawyer announced that prison authorities in Iran hanged the lifeless body of his client who had a fatal heart failure before being executed.

“Today, I saw the death certificate of Zahra Esma’ili. The reason written for her death was heart failure,” Omid Moradi tweeted on February 19, 2021.

Zahra Esma’ili was hanged at dawn on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, at Gohardasht (a.k.a. Rajaiishahr) Prison in Karaj. She was 42 and had 2 children.

Zahra Esma’ili was the 114th woman executed during Rouhani’s tenure as the clerical regime’s president

According to her lawyer, she saw 16 prisoners hanged before her eyes. So, she had a heart attack before being taken to the gallows. Nevertheless, prison guards hanged her lifeless body.

Zahra Esma’ili was innocent. She claimed responsibility for the murder of her husband to save her teenage daughter who had shot him in the head.

Alireza Zamani was a managing director at the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence. He routinely mistreated and battered his wife and children.

He used to take different women home before the eyes of his own family.

Alireza Zamani had even threatened to kill his wife and attempted to rape his own daughter.

As a result of such brutalities, his daughter killed him with the help of her brother.

The plight of Zahra Esma’ili is a reminder of the bleak situation of women in Iran under the corrupt rule of the misogynous mullahs.

Zahra Esma’ili was the 114th woman executed during Rouhani’s tenure as the clerical regime’s president. 

Iran is the world’s top executioner of women and has the highest rate of per capita executions. 

At least 28 prisoners, including 3 women, have been hanged in Iran over the past month.

Source: women.ncr-iran.org, Staff, February 19, 2021

Iran hangs already-dead woman Zahra Esmaili, lawyer says


The lawyer of a woman recently executed in Iran said Friday that the authorities hanged his client despite suffering a fatal stroke before her execution.

In a Friday post on his facebook account which was later deleted, Omid Moradi said that Zahra Esmaili suffered a fatal stroke after witnessing 16 men being hanged before her and authorities hanged her dead body. He said that Esmaili’s death certificate states “cardiac arrest” as the cause of death.

“It states cardiac arrest as cause of death because yesterday 16 men were hanged before her eyes. Zahra’s heart stopped and she died before she was taken to the gallows,” Moradi wrote.

“They hanged her lifeless body, and the victim’s mother, Fatemeh Asal-Mahi, personally kicked the stool from under her feet so she could see her daughter-in-law’s corpse on the gallows for even a few seconds.”

Zahra Esmaili, mother of two, was found guilty of killing her husband who was a senior agent in the Ministry of Intelligence, according to Omid Moradi.

She was hanged at dawn on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, in Rajaei Shahr prison of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran.

Zahra Esmaili was a victim of domestic violence and had murdered her husband in self-defense. Her husband, a high ranking intel official frequently battered her.

She was transferred to solitary confinement in a group of 10 death-row prisoners on Monday, February 15, to be prepared for execution. She had been serving her jail sentence in the notorious Qarchak Prison.

The clerical regime has executed three women in recent weeks in the prisons of Ardabil, Sanandaj and Karaj. This brings to 114 the total number of executions of women during Rouhani’s tenure as the regime’s president.

Iran HRM calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council and other institutions defending human rights to take urgent action to save the lives of Iranian prisoners on death row. The Iranian regime’s dossier of human rights violations must be referred to the UN Security Council. The leaders and officials of the clerical regime in Iran must face justice for four decades of committing crimes against humanity.

Sourceiran-hrm.com, Staff, February 19, 2021


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