On June 1, the Iranian cities of Karaj and Orumiyeh were the scene of the execution of 16 prisoners.
The majority of these executions, 12 of them, were carried out in Ghezel Hessar Prison in the city of Karaj. 13 prisoners were transferred into solitary confinement on May 30, prior to their execution. One of those prisoners died of a heart attack in solitary confinement prior to the hanging.
After the executions, the corpses of those hanged were delivered to their families, gathered in front of the prison.
Collective hanging by this regime is now common in Iran, and many of the prisoners staged a hunger strike to protest against their collective executions. The Iranian regime’s anti-riot prison guards in Ghezel Hessar attacked and battered those prisoners for daring to protest.
The other four hangings were carried out at the Darya Prison in the city of Orumiyeh. These four were Kurds, and three of them were cousins.
Iran’s religious fascist rulers have long used atrocity to intensify the atmosphere of terror within the country. The Iranian Resistance reported that “On May 30, three prisoners were paraded in the streets of Pakdasht (Tehran Province) under the pretense of being ‘thugs and hoodlums.’ Colonel A’dinevand, commander of the security forces in Pakdasht County, said: ‘People need to be sure that security is not something that anyone may disrupt.'”
The Iranian Resistance’s President-elect, Maryam Rajavi, speaking about these executions, said, “[The] upsurge of executions indicates [the] regime’s fear from outburst of public protests. Youths should rise in support of victims’ families, protest barbarism.”
The Iranian Resistance says the regime’s unprecedented escalation of arbitrary, mass executions across Iran, indicates the regime’s fear of broad-based social discontent in the country, leading to social and political crises which it cannot control.
Mrs. Rajavi expressed her sympathy with the families of those who were hanged. She called on the brave youth in Iran, and the general public, to both aid the families and protest the “unbridled barbarism” of the mullahs.
Although many say that Iran’s President Rouhani is a “moderate,” the total number of executions recorded during his tenure has now reached 1700.
Mrs. Rajavi says the arbitrary, mass executions are tantamount to a crime against humanity, and Khamenei and other regime leaders must be held accountable for their flagrant violations of human rights in Iran.
The international community has been largely silent while the Iranian regime has carried out these abuses. Mrs. Rajavi called on human rights advocates, especially those in Europe and the United States, to protest the silence and inaction of western countries, over the mounting number of executions in Iran.
“The international community’s silence and inaction over the systematic brutalities and abuses in Iran with the excuse of nuclear negotiations or else, tramples upon humanitarian values and human rights and further emboldens Iran’s religious fascist regime in slaughtering the populace and continuing its efforts to acquire the nuclear bomb and export fundamentalism and terrorism.” – Mrs. Rajavi
There has been some recent condemnation of Iran’s abuses. More than 220 Members of the European Parliament sent a signed statement to EU Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini, slamming Iran’s gross human rights violations. Their statement called on the Iranian regime to “end the executions, free political prisoners, stop the repression of women and respect the rights and freedoms of the Iranian people.”
The EU does not have a firm policy towards Iran, which is the reason the statement was sent to the EU Foreign Policy Chief.
Speaking in Brussels, Gerard Deprez, chair of the Friends of a Free Iran in European Parliament said “We are extremely worried about Iran’s despicable human rights records, recent arrest of women political activists and the sudden increase of executions especially after the preliminary nuclear agreement in April. What is happening in Iran today is totally incompatible with our democratic principles in Europe, therefore any expansion of relationship with Iran must be conditioned to a clear improvement of human rights.”
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says there is only one way to remedy the growing economic and social problems in the dark era of the mullahs’ rule, and that is to “uproot the thugs and hoodlums ruling Iran that have brought nothing but corruption, prostitution, addiction and unemployment to Iran.”
The European parliamentarians support an alternative plan for the future of Iran, presented by Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian opposition.
