Iran sentences 2 gay rights activists to death for ‘promoting homosexuality’

Iran’s regime has executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the nation’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

Photo: Clandestine "Gay Pride" in Tehran, Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran imposed the death penalty on 2 LGBT activists for allegedly promoting homosexuality, human rights organization Hengaw reported on Sunday.

According to Hengaw, an organization that documents human rights violations in Kurdistan, “Zahra Sediqi Hamedani, known as ‘Sareh,’ 31, from Naqadeh, and Elham Chubdar, 24, from Urmia, both activists of the LGBT community, were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Urmia in a joint case on the charge of ‘Corruption on Earth’ through the promoting of homosexuality.”

The Hengaw Human Rights Organization added that “the sentence has been announced to them in the past few days in the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison.”

Urmia is a city in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran.

The independent Iranian news Twitter feed 1500tasvir also reported the sentencing, writing on Sunday that “Homosexual rights activists #Zahra_Seddighi (31) and #Elham Choobdar (24) have been sentenced to death.”

Iran’s regime has executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the nation’s Islamic revolution in 1979, according to a 2008 British Wikipedia cable.

Iran denied an LGBT's activist a lawyer

Hengaw noted in its report that “Zahra Sediqi Hamadani was deprived of the right to access a lawyer during her detention, and the security agents threatened her with her execution and deprivation of custody of her 2 children besides verbal harassment and insults to her identity and appearance.”

The Jerusalem Post reported in December on the arrest of the lesbian human rights activist Zahra (Sahra).

Peter Tatchell, the British human rights campaigner and LGBT activist told The Post on Sunday that “Zahra Sediqi Hamedani and Elham Chubdar are both accused of being LGBT activists and have been sentenced to death on the charge of 'Corruption on Earth' through the promotion of homosexuality. This very grave catch-all charge is often used against critics of the regime and those who express opinions that are not compliant with Islamic orthodoxy. It normally results in execution." Zahra reportedly had no access to a lawyer during her 10 months detention. Iran is notorious for unfair trials and this is very likely the case with these 2 women."

He added that "They will probably be hanged using the barbaric long, slow strangulation method; much favored by the Iranian regime in order to maximize the victim’s suffering."

These cases further highlight the Tehran dictatorship’s ongoing murderous war against LGBT people, in violation of the principles of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The international community must press the Iranian authorities to commute the death sentences and release these women.”

Prof. Jessica Emami, an Iran expert and research fellow for The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, said at the time that "from its inception, the Islamic Republic of Iran has treated LGBT individuals with despotism and barbarity. LGBT Iranians desperate to avert imprisonment and even death seek to escape Iran. Sara was doing just that when she was ensnared by the IRGC militia. Now, the regime is spreading false rumors in the media and scapegoating Sara. I implore human rights organizations to reach out to regime authorities to demand Sara's immediate release."

Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran due to repression, said in December “News like this doesn’t surprise us anymore. The Islamic Republic in Iran interferes in the most private parts of Iranians’ lives. The Islamic Republic wants to make slaves out of us, an army of slaves ready to die for the regime’s ideology. The regime wants to decide for the whole nation, wants to decide even for people’s sexual desire, for the relationship between husbands and wives and the amount of their children, for our believes, for the way we think. The regime decides which nations we should hate and which nations we should love and if we make our own decisions against the Mullah regime’s will, we will be taken into account as a danger against the national security."

Source: Jerusalem Post, Staff, September 4, 2022

Two LGBT activists have been sentenced to death in Iran for “promoting homosexuality”

According to the Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw, Zahra Sediqi Hamedani, also known as “Sareh”, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were both sentenced to death for “corruption on Earth” through the promotion of homosexuality.

Their joint case was decided by the Revolutionary Court in Urmia, Iran, part of a special Islamic court system in the country.

They are currently being held in Urmia Central Prison.

The two women were convicted of “promoting homosexuality”, as well as “promoting Christianity” and “communicating with the media opposing the Islamic Republic”, in January this year.

At the time of Hamedani’s arrest when she attempted to flee the country in October 2021, the Iranian branch of Amnesty International said: “The criminalisation of LGBT people perpetuates violence and discrimination against them.

“We renew our calls on Iran’s authorities to decriminalise same-sex sexual conduct; immediately release all those detained on the basis of their identity or for defending LGBT rights; and adopt legislation to respect and protect the human rights of LGBT people.”

Amnesty International later demanded the LGBT activist’s release in a letter to the chief justice of Iran, but to no avail.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, British LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell said: “Zahra Sediqi Hamedani and Elham Chubdar are both accused of being LGBT activists and have been sentenced to death on the charge of ‘Corruption on Earth’ through the promotion of homosexuality.

“This very grave catch-all charge is often used against critics of the regime and those who express opinions that are not compliant with Islamic orthodoxy. It normally results in execution.”

Tatchell noted that Hamedani “reportedly had no access to a lawyer during her 10 months detention” and described Iran as “notorious for unfair trials”.

He added: “They will probably be hanged using the barbaric long, slow strangulation method; much favoured by the Iranian regime in order to maximise the victim’s suffering.”

Under Iran’s 2013 Islamic penal code, same-sex conduct between both men and women is criminalised, and punishable with flogging or the death penalty.

Even where no sex has taken place, LGBT people can also be arrested for affectionate behaviour “such as kissing or lustful touching”.

Source: Pink News, L. Wakefield, September 4, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

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

Florida to execute William Thompson after nearly 48 years on death row

On Sept. 11, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant for William Thompson, convicted of the 1976 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. Thompson, now 74, and another man were staying in a Miami Beach hotel room with Ivester and another woman, according to court records. After Ivester was unable to get money from her mother, the men beat and tortured her, prosecutors said. She died from internal bleeding and multiple injuries. Thompson was convicted in 1978 of kidnapping, rape, and first-degree murder.

Afghanistan | Signs that horrific brutality is set to return

Kneeling next to a ditch, deep in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, a 22-year-old woman draws her last breath in a 'desert court' before she is shot in the back with an AK-47. Her executioner? Likely her hardline militant husband, in what the Taliban consider an 'honour killing'. It took less than an hour to decide Najiba had been adulterous – although it has been suggested this accusation was fabricated to protect her husband's reputation. Adultery is a crime that deserves capital punishment under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Sharia law. Fourteen years on from her death, little is known about her story, like many women slowly being erased from the fabric of Afghan society.

Singapore | Ministry of Home Affairs refutes claims that death penalty was discussed during visit by Israel's security ministry

The Ministry of Home Affairs says discussions with the Israeli government involved the sharing of best practices in emergency response, crime prevention, and forensics. Issues relating to the death penalty “were never part of the meeting and were not discussed." SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (Sep 11) refuted claims by an Israeli media outlet that the death penalty was discussed during a visit by an Israeli delegation in May. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Sep 7 that a delegation comprising representatives from the Israel Prison Service and National Security Ministry made a “secret visit” to Singapore that month.

Florida executes Daniel Owen Conahan Jr.

In Florida’s 15th execution this year, man put to death for killing linked to ‘Hog Trail Murders’ A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a 3-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least 6 people over a 3-year span.

Alabama | Lethal injection for double murderer set for Thursday after court blocked nitrogen hypoxia execution in June

Alabama plans to execute Jeffery Lee on Thursday via lethal injection after a down-to-the-wire decision by the federal courts halted his death by nitrogen hypoxia in June. In response, Gov. Kay Ivey set the 30-hour window for the execution to be carried out by lethal injection beginning at 12 a.m. on Thursday, September 17, and expiring at 6 a.m. on Friday, September 18. Barring any further court action, the execution will take place at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

California | He spent 19 years on death row. His conversion to Judaism helped him endure

Johnny Morales struggled to find sleep. He dozed off for a few moments, but officers came to his death row cell and woke him a little after midnight. They needed to inventory and box up his belongings. He was leaving San Quentin. Hands cuffed behind his back, he walked across the empty upper yard in the dim gray hours before daylight. An officer walked alongside him step for step, black latex-gloved fingers holding onto Morales’s arm. For almost 20 years, Morales could only experience the world outside his 4-by-11 foot cell in the condemned housing unit like this—chained and escorted by officers. Security protocols required all death row residents be handcuffed or shackled any time they were out in open space with staff.

California | Becerra vows to extend moratorium despite past support for capital punishment

SACRAMENTO—Democrat Xavier Becerra defended the death penalty while serving as California’s attorney general, a punishment his office actively sought in the case of a gunman convicted of an Orange County mass shooting, but as the front-running candidate for governor, he has vowed to block executions if elected in November. Becerra said he will extend the blanket reprieve for all death row inmates that Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted by executive order in 2019, saying he supported “moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”

Iran | Afghan Citizen Executed in Wheelchair Due to Severe Mobility Disability

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed an Afghan citizen, identified as Valijan Nourzay, at the central prison in Rafsanjan, according to the human rights organization Hengaw. Hengaw said in a statement on Sunday, September 6, that Nourzay was executed early Wednesday last week at Rafsanjan Central Prison. According to the organization, Nourzay had a severe mobility disability and was executed while in a wheelchair. Hengaw, citing informed sources, reported that Nourzay had been pursued by Iranian authorities three years ago over an alleged murder. He was reportedly seriously wounded after Iranian security forces opened fire on him in Rafsanjan before being arrested and later sentenced to death.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

Egypt TV presenter and 11 others sentenced to death in major drugs case

Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 others have been sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of drug trafficking and rape, while nine defendants received life sentences and seven were acquitted. Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa, 39, has been sentenced to death by hanging along with 11 other defendants after being found guilty in a drugs case involving a criminal gang accused of importing ingredients used to manufacture narcotics for sale.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog