Death Penalty News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief won the country’s presidential election in a landslide victory Saturday, propelling the supreme leader’s protege into Tehran’s highest civilian position in a vote that appeared to see the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Initial results showed Ebrahim Raisi won 17.8 million votes in the contest, dwarfing those of the race's sole moderate candidate. However, Raisi dominated the election only after a panel under the watch of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disqualified his strongest competition. His candidacy, and the sense the election served more as a coronation for him, sparked widespread apathy among eligible voters in the Islamic Republic, which has held up turnout as a sign of support for the theocracy since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Some, including former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for a boycott. In initial results, former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Reza...

Iran’s theocratic regime is paving the way for a hardliner, who is linked to mass executions and human rights abuses, to become the country’s next president -- as dissidents cry foul over what they see as a rigged election, and are calling for mass boycotts. Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s judiciary chief who lost the 2017 contest against now-outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, is seen as the favorite to win the June 19 vote. Raisi was one of a number of officials sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2019 over human rights abuses. The Treasury Department cited U.S. reports that, under Raisi, the judiciary had sanctioned the execution of child offenders and arrested lawyers for defending political prisoners and human rights defenders. Raisi previously served as prosecutor general of Tehran between 1989 and 1994 as well as the first deputy head of the judiciary between 2004 and 2014. The U.S. government has noted his involvement in what it described as a "brutal" crackdown on Iran’s Green...

The mothers of the November 2019 martyrs once again reaffirm their pledge to boycott the mullahs’ election sham The sister of Navid Afkari, the executed wrestling champion, announced that she would not vote in the clerical regime’s sham presidential election. Elham Afkari vowed that she would never betray the pure blood of her innocent brother, Navid. Elham Afkari posted a photograph of her brother Navid Afkari in her Instagram account and wrote: “Navid was serving his time as a conscript soldier when the time came for the 2013 presidential election. I remember he said: ‘No matter what they did, I did not vote.’ They had even told him that they would extend his service in the army if he did not vote, but Navid said: ‘I will not vote. Even if I have to tear up my birth certificate, I will not betray my people.’” The sister of Navid Afkari continued: “Now, I will not betray 80 million Iranians. I will not betray those killed in the November 2019 uprising. I will not betray 176 innocent p...

As Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi run his campaign for the June 18 Presidential election, he still oversees the implementation of death sentences against prisoners.  In this context, authorities hanged at least eleven prisoners, including 2 women, in the prisons of Qazvin, Birjand, Isfahan, and Yazd within 1 week alone, based on reports provided by the human rights association No to Prison – No to Execution. Execution of a Young Couple At dawn on May 30, authorities in Iran hanged a young couple in Qazvin Prison, west of Tehran. The man was identified as Yousef Pir-Ostovan. However, the female victim’s identification is unclear. It is said that they had a cousinhood relationship. They had been kept in prison for around 8 years. According to human rights defenders, the State Security Forces detained them on drug-related charges on the Qazvin-Karaj highway 8 years ago. As of this report, authorities have avoided announcing this news. In 2015, judicial officials allegedly reformed and ...

Iran’s judiciary chief, Death Commission Judge Ebrahim Raisi declared his candidacy on Saturday for next month’s presidential election. “I have come as an independent to the stage to make changes in the executive management of the country and to fight poverty, corruption, humiliation and discrimination,” Raisi was quoted as saying in a statement by local media. Appointed by the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the head of the Judiciary in March 2019, Raisi has emerged as one of Iran’s most powerful figures and a contender to succeed Khamenei. He lost to Hassan Rouhani in the 2017 presidential election. The vote takes place amid systematic violations of human rights in Iran in all its forms. During the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, Raisi was a member of the “Death Commission,” a group of so-called judges who sentenced the prisoners to death in minutes-long trials. 620 Executions under Death Commission Judge Ebrahim Raisi More than 620 executions were carried out in...