Death Penalty News

Iran on Tuesday criticized as politically motivated a United Nations report that described the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic as “disturbing.” "The report presented today is based on an entirely political mandate initiated by a group of like-minded, or rather 'similarly-biased', countries that have long instrumentalized human rights as part and parcel of their adversarial agenda against Iran," Esmail Baghaei Hamaneh, Tehran’s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council, told the council on Tuesday. The UN Secretary-General’s report on human rights in Iran over the past year concluded that, while Iran is facing deteriorating conditions under economic sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, “authorities have shown no willingness to adopt meaningful reforms,” stated the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. “Overall, the report finds a disturbing human rights landscape for Iranian women and men of every religious faith, ethnic or...

The European Union imposed sanctions Monday against eight Iranian militia commanders and security officials, including the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), over their role in a deadly crackdown on protests in 2019. Why it matters : It's the first time the EU has sanctioned Iran for human rights abuses since 2013, and comes as the bloc looks to facilitate a U.S. return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Background : Iran was shaken toward the end of 2019 by its deadliest political unrest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, after protesters took to the streets across the country in response to an abrupt increase in gasoline prices. - The Iranian government imposed an internet blackout and cracked down with brutal force, arbitrarily detaining thousands of protesters and killing more than 300, according to Amnesty International. - Iranian officials told Reuters at the time that the death toll may have been as high as 1,500, after Supreme Leader Ayatolla...

BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union is set to agree to sanction several Iranian individuals on Wednesday for human rights abuses, the first such measures since 2013, three EU diplomats said. EU envoys are expected to agree to impose travel bans and asset freezes on the individuals, the diplomats said, and their names would be published next week, when the sanctions take effect.  They gave no further details. The European Union declined to comment. Like the United States, the European Union has an array of sanctions over human rights since 2011 on more than 80 Iranian individuals which has been renewed annually every April. Those will also be renewed on Wednesday, the three diplomats said. Asked why the latest measures were being taken now, one of the diplomats said the EU was seeking to take a tougher stance to uphold human rights.  This month, the EU sanctioned 11 people from countries including China, North Korea, Libya and Russia. “Those responsible for serious ri...

The new EU global sanctions regime might be applied against Iran following the execution of a journalist and the pending death sentences against prisoners without due process. The execution by hanging on Saturday of journalist Rouhollah Zam after a televised trial was condemned by the EU in the strongest terms. In a statement, EU expressed its opposition against the use of capital punishment under any circumstances. The Iranian ministry of foreign affairs responded by summoning EU ambassadors and protested against what it called EU’s interference in Iranian domestic affairs. Another prisoner who has been sentenced to death penalty without due process and is threatened of imminent execution is Ahmadreza Djalali, a disaster medicine researcher with dual Swedish-Iranian citizenship who also has been a guest professor at VUB in Brussels. The Belgian ministry of foreign affairs is involved in the EU attempts to prevent his execution and to achieve his release, possibly through a prisoner ex...

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian presidential challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urged European Union leaders on Wednesday not to recognise what she called fraudulent election results, saying longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko had lost all legitimacy. Tsikhanouskaya was speaking from exile in neighbouring Lithuania before an emergency EU summit, due to be held by video conference, to discuss the crisis unfolding in Belarus, where the Aug.9 election sparked mass protests. Tsikhanouskaya says she was the rightful winner of the election and wants new elections to be held under some kind of international supervision. “I call on you not to recognise these fraudulent elections,” Tsikhanouskaya said, speaking in English in a video address. “Mr. Lukashenko has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.” Lukashenko is struggling to contain the protests and a wave of strikes that pose the biggest challenge to his 26-year-old hold on power. He denies rigging th...

Officials say the cause of death of the 25-year-old man in Gomel is unclear. His mother says he had heart problems and was kept for hours in a police van. In Brest, police said they used live bullets when they came under attack. The UN has condemned the use of violence by authorities, as protests continued for a fourth night. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said police officers were reported to have used excessive force, firing rubber bullets and water cannons, and also throwing stun grenades. "Reports suggest that more [than] approximately 6,000 people have been detained in the last three days, including bystanders, as well as minors, suggesting a trend of massive arrests in clear violation of international human rights standards," Ms Bachelet said in a statement . "Even more disturbing are the reports of ill-treatment during and after detention", she added, calling for the release of all those unlawfully detaine...

Europe’s longest serving leader Alexander Lukashenko has long worked hard to seem invincible. He has dominated past elections that the U.S. has deemed neither free nor fair and brokered no dissent and suppressed protests. Now, he is facing an unprecedented challenge as he runs for a sixth term as president of Belarus in elections on August 9. A former teacher and political novice, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has emerged as his main rival, pledging to topple Lukashenko’s regime and restore democracy. Tens of thousands have rallied across Belarus in some of the country’s biggest opposition protests in a decade, amid mounting frustration over the government’s mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis , combined with grievances about the economy. Referring to Lukashenko, protestors chanted ‘stop the cockroach’ and held placards reading ‘change!’ . “For the first time in his 26-year rule, Lukashenko knows the majority don’t support him,” says Aleksandr Feduta, a former aide to the incum...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran suspended the execution of three young men who participated in a November protest after the country’s Supreme Court decided to review their case, state TV reported on Sunday. An appeals court had upheld their death sentence over leading riots, committing robbery and sending video of their activities to foreign media. But lawyers for the three expressed hope that a new review of the case would lead to a “nullification” of the death sentence. If the Supreme Court agrees, Iranian law allows those convicted to appeal again even after an appeals court has upheld the original verdict. The death sentence identifies the three as Amir Hossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi.  Their case has prompted an outcry in the country and a popular hashtag for stopping the implementation of their death sentence topped Iran's Twitter trends and had been retweeted more than 4 million times. Protests swept across the country last November fueled b...

There has been an alarming escalation in use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups in Iran, Amnesty International said today, following the executions on 13 July of two Kurdish men in Urumieh prison in West Azerbaijan province.  Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2015 solely on the basis of torture-tainted “confessions” and amid overwhelming evidence pointing to their innocence. Hours later a judicial official announced that the death sentences of three young men imposed in connection with the anti-establishment protests in November 2019 had been upheld.  In addition, at least 5 prisoners from Iran’s Kurdish minority and three prisoners from Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority are at risk of execution.  Another Kurdish man remains forcibly disappeared and is believed to have been secretly executed by firing squad. “Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah a...

Iran’s judiciary said Friday that about 100 people accused of having led violent antigovernment protests over fuel price increases had been arrested nationwide, and a top cleric said they deserved the “maximum penalty.” The declaration by the cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, leader of Friday Prayers, suggested the authorities intended to make examples of the suspects to help crush any remnants of the deadly protests, which upended life in dozens of Iranian cities and towns. While Khatami did not specify if he meant that the suspects should receive the death penalty, the Kayhan newspaper, mouthpiece of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said they should be hanged. “This is not a system that will be shaken by these stupid evils,” Khatami said, according to a translation by Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency. In scrambling to respond to the protests, Iranian officials disconnected almost the entire country from the internet, effectively censoring ...