Death Penalty News

Tehran says Roozbeh Vadi transferred sensitive information after in-person meetings in Vienna and received cryptocurrency payments A man convicted of spying for Israel was executed in Iran on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court upheld his sentence. He had passed information about a nuclear scientist killed during the 12-day war with Israel in June. Roozbeh Vadi, who authorities accused of espionage for Mossad, allegedly transferred sensitive information after in‑person meetings in Vienna and received cryptocurrency payments. His execution was carried out privately, with minimal public announcement.

Iran’s parliament passed a law on Sunday intensifying penalties for collaboration with Israel, the United States, and other hostile countries against national security and interests. The legislation classifies such acts as “corruption on earth”, punishable by death. “Any intelligence, espionage, or operational activity for Israel, the US, or other hostile regimes and groups or their agents against the country’s security or national interests is considered corruption on earth and punishable by death,” the law says.

Iran has sentenced three people to death over the 2020 assassination of one of the country’s top nuclear scientists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the judiciary said on Tuesday. “The judicial processes of these three people were carried out in the Revolutionary Court of Urmia, and they were sentenced to death in the initial stage, and the case is currently in the appeal stage,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a Tehran press conference.

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian are missing after the helicopter carrying them crashed in the middle of the Dizmar forest. DUBAI, May 19 (Reuters) - A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog on the way back from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan, an Iranian official told Reuters. The official said the lives of Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were "at risk following the helicopter crash".

Pope Francis on Monday broke his silence on the nationwide protests convulsing Iran, denouncing the recourse to the death penalty there and seemingly legitimizing the rallies as demonstrations “demanding greater respect for the dignity of women.” Francis made the comments in an annual speech to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican, a foreign policy speech the pope delivers at the start of each year outlining the areas of greatest concern for the Holy See.

The regime in Tehran hanged three prisoners on Sunday , including two political prisoners, in Zahedan northeast Iran, bringing the number of executions in just twenty days to 30. On December 31, 2020, the regime hanged three Sunni prisoners, Hamid Rastbala, Kabir Sa’adat Jahani, and Mohammad Ali Arayesh, on the charge of being “outlaws” in Vakil-Abab Prison in Mashhad, northeast Iran. They had endured five-and-a-half years of imprisonment and torture. Tehran once again confirmed its disregard for international human rights standards. Also, on Thursday, Brigadier General Qassem Rezaei, the State Security Force (SSF) deputy commander, told his agents on TV to “break the arms” of defiant youth who the criminal regime calls “thugs.” Rezaei said: “If you catch them on the scene and I see that he is standing unharmed, you should answer why he is still unharmed.” He also confirmed the regime’s disregard for international law and even Iran’s own laws, saying the detainees’ only right is to “...

This article was originally published in The Globe Post on December 11, 2020. At 24 years old, the Iranian Saba Kordafshari is currently serving a sentence matching her age for merely taking off her hijab on the streets of Tehran. She will spend her youth in prison for standing up for women’s rights in a country that regulates every aspect of a woman’s life. Soon after her arrest, she was joined by her mother, Raheleh Ahmadi. Raheleh, who had spent the previous two months seeking justice for her daughter, found herself in prison as a way of pressuring her daughter to make a false televised confession. Charged with “inciting and facilitating corruption and prostitution” for taking off their hijabs in public, mother and daughter were serving their respective 31 months and 24 year imprisonment sentences together in Evin Prison, until Saba was transferred to another prison (Qarchak) Wednesday. Raheleh begged the authorities to transfer her with Saba. They refused. Iranian Human Rights Def...