September 30, 2002

Public Hanging of Five Prisoners Arouses Fury
Revolutionary Guards fire tear gas to disperse angry crowd
Executions reach 287 since January 2002

At five am on September 29, five prisoners were hanged before the bewildered eyes of thousands of Tehran residents in Azadi Square, in West Tehran and the entrance to Lavizan Park, east of the capital. The were identified as Amir Fakhri, Amir Karbalaii Haidar, Payam Amini, Majid Qasemi and Farhad Aq-Larian. The Revolutionary Guards in Lavizan Square had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd who were protesting against this crime.
The hangings bring the total number of executions announced this week to 11. The state-run daily Khorassan reported on September 29 the imminent execution of two prisoners by the names of Sattar and Alireza charged with the "murder of a security force's officer". Also a 27-year-old man by the name of Hossein and another 20-year-old man by the name of Reza were executed in Tehran last week. The state-run daily Entekhab reported yesterday the execution sentence issued for a man aged 21 by the name of Morteza in Tehran. The state-run daily Qods reported the execution verdict issued for a young man in Mashad on September 25.
In addition to street executions, barbaric punishments such as flogging in public continue in various towns and cities across the country. In Tehran, a young man was sentenced to 74 lashes on September 25. On September 26, three young Iranians residing in Germany were sentenced to 64 lashes and banned from leaving the country. The state-run daily Etemad, September 24, reported that three young people were sentenced to a total number of 170 lashes in Tehran. In Shahr-e Ray, a woman by the name of Somayeh was sentenced to 74 lashes and another young woman was sentenced to 20 lashes in Tehran.
The wave of arrests in various towns and cities continues. Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Zareii, commander of the State Security Forces in Gilan province, announced that 683 persons were arrested in a suppressive maneuver code named Fath in recent days. Revolutionary Guards Colonel Ebrahim Azizi, Guards commander in the southern city of Shiraz, said that 80 boys and girls had been arrested in the city, while state newspapers reported the arrest of 60 others at a party. In Tehran's Shahr-e Ziba 27 boys and girls were arrested at a party.
The mullahs' aim is in stepping up street executions and cruel punishments is to terrorize the population to stem the rising protests and antigovernment demonstrations. In the past month alone, 59 large-scale antigovernment protests such as strikes, demonstrations and sit-ins and clashes with repressive forces have been reported in different parts of the country.

EU Urged Not to Give in to Mullahs' Ploys to Abort UN Resolution on Iran
The National Council of Resistance of Iran in a statement on September 28, condemned the forthcoming visit to Iran by a European Union delegation, which is due to hold talks with Iran's rulers on the prospects of a resolution being tabled at the current session of the UN General Assembly condemning human rights violation in Iran.
The NCRI called on the EU not to sacrifice humanitarian principles in the face of pressures and promises from the religious tyranny in Iran.
In separate letters to the foreign ministers of the 15 member states of the European Union, Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chairman of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the visit, regardless of the details involved, meant playing into the hands of the religious fascism ruling Iran. The mullahs would no doubt exploit the visit to evade UN censure, Mohaddessin said.
The letter pointed out that the Iranian regime's leaders have opted for a policy of foot-dragging and hollow promises in negotiations with the Europeans with the ultimate aim of heading off a censure resolution at the General Assembly. Their stated goal is to prevent the EU from tabling such a resolution by offering meaningless concessions, such as allowing some of the topical rapporteurs of the UNHRC to pay nominal visits to Iran. By dragging the process, mullahs' officials hope to deprive the EU of the time needed for such a resolution.
Mr. Mohaddessin asked: How could a visit by a delegation that lacks mandate to investigate and report on the appalling state of human rights, and whose sole task is limited to a mere give-and-take with the cunning mullahs, form the basis for an EU decision to introduce a resolution at the General Assembly? If the EU delegation were to read some of the reports in the mullahs' newspapers, they would not have needed to make this trip.
A policy based on concessions and appeasement only emboldens this regime to commit more crimes, Mr. Mohaddessin said He called on the EU foreign ministers to sponsor a strongly-worded resolution condemning human rights violations at the current session of the General Assembly, in order to put an end to the human rights disaster that suspension of international monitoring of the rights situation in Iran has entailed.


Swedish MPs, Activists Say Human Rights Are Prior to Trade with Iran
Wednesday, September 25, Stockholm - A group of members of the Parliament of Sweden and human rights advocates participated at a press conference at Victory Hotel to urge their government to adopt a decisive stance against violations of human rights in Iran by supporting a UN General Assembly resolution in this regard. The meeting sponsored by the Democratic Association of Iranian Professionals in Sweden was also attended by Mr. Parviz Khazaii, representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Nordic countries.
Ms. Malin Svensson, MP, representing the Center Party, told the meeting: We have gathered here today to condemn violations of human and women's rights in Iran... We are here to defend your demand and to condemn the Iranian regime's practices in the form of a strong resolution issued by the European Union and the United Nations... Our specific demand from the Government of Sweden is to refrain from reaching any agreements with Iran at the cost of women's rights. The Center Party believes that we must have more specific demands from Iran... We and other parties demand that the Iranian government accept the UN special representative's visit to Iran, otherwise we could not have a realistic picture of that country.
Mr. Gustave Fridolin, MP and leader of the Greens Youth, said: It is unacceptable that while violation of human rights aggravates in Iran, the regime's condemnation is undermined at the United Nations. Such a censure must become stronger so long as this regime is not removed... The Iranian people's conditions must be given priority over commercial interests. I believe that the Government of Sweden and other western countries have not done what they should have in this regard. They have been more than silent against the Iranian regime.
Ms. Helena Bargholz, MP from the Liberal Party, said: We and other parties of Sweden have decided to place this issue (of violations of human rights in Iran) on our agenda, more than we did before. It is necessary that the international community show more sensitivity to this issue. The European Union has a very important role in this regard... It is our duty is to support you in this struggle.
Ms. Rozita Runegrundh, MP from Christian Democratic Party, said: Human rights is very important for Christian Democrats and for this reason, we support you.
Ms. Anki Elken, President of the Forum for Cooperation of Women in Sweden with 1.5 million members, expressed Swedish women's sense of responsibility towards the situation of women in Iran. She said: Along with several other active organizations, we urged the Foreign Minister to consider a greater role for Sweden in defending Iranian women's rights.
Ms. Gillberg Rigmor, chair of tortured refugees' section of the Swedish Red Cross, has been in touch with the realities of Iran because of her position which constantly brings her in touch with Iranian asylum seekers. She said: Unfortunately, these brutalities are a daily routine spreading in Iran. Although we know that most of the incidents that take place inside prisons do not ever reach us... I hope that the world community acts logically in dealing with this problem. Sweden and other EU states must make it clear that they will not allow continuation of this situation and they will take measures to condemn the Iranian regime.
In the question and answer session which followed, all the speakers were unanimous on the need for Sweden and the EU to sponsor a strong resolution at the current session of the UN General Assembly and to adopt a firm stance against violations of human rights in Iran. They also concurred on the need to table parliamentary questions in this regard.

Joint EC-EP Meeting Hears NCRI Official on Stoning
Chair of Women's Committee urges action on plight of women in Iran

A joint meeting was held on the morning of Thursday, September 26, by the Committees for Equal Opportunities for Men and Women of the European Council and the European Parliament at Palais d'Europe in Strasbourg, France.
Upon the invitation of the European Council's Committee, Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz, chair of the Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, attended and addressed the meeting on the violation of women's rights in Iran.
The meeting was opened by the chair of the Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the Council of Europe. She welcomed the audience and stressed on the importance of such a joint meeting with its counterpart committee at the European Parliament.
Next, Ms. Anna Karamanou, chair of European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, pointed out that the EP Equal Opportunities' Committee sought equal rights for women and men and that such equality does not exist in various countries.
In remarks at his hearing, Ms. Chitsaz reviewed the roots of the mullahs' fundamentalist outlook. She also pointed to the escalation of violations of human rights in Iran particularly in the months following the vote by UN Human Rights Commission in April which failed to censure the mullahs' regime for its rights abuses. She said: "The day after the vote of the UN Commission, six men were hanged in public in three crowded locations in central Tehran. And in a matter of a few weeks, the official press announced the executions of at least 50 persons."
Ms. Chitsaz devoted a major part of her speech to the practice of the cruel punishment of stoning of women. She noted: "The cruel punishment of stoning, three-fourth of whose victims are women, is a common practice in Iran. This punishment has been deployed more widely in recent years and members of Khatami's cabinet have defended it on various occasions. Some of the regime's officials deceptively attribute this practice to local traditions and describe them as isolated orders issued by one or a few religious judges. This is not true! These verdicts are issued by some of the most notorious judges and approved by the mullahs' Supreme Court before being carried out."
Ms. Chitsaz elaborated in detail on a few cases of stoning reported by the official press in Iran and added: "Stoning is a symbol of numerous inhuman discriminations imposed against the women of my country.
These discriminations also lead to thousands of suicides by Iranian women and girls every year. Facing horrible injustices, these women find no way but to kill themselves, or on rare occasions, kill those who brutalize and abuse them.
I would like to enumerate only some of such discriminations:
The legal age of marriage for Iranian girls was nine until July. In July, it was raised to 13, with reservations which still allows parents to wed their daughters before they are 13 years old. The father or any male guardian is allowed to wed or sell his daughter without her consent. Women are deprived of the right to divorce. On the contrary, men are free to divorce their wives even without her knowledge. (Just recently, the mullahs' parliament tabled a bill allowing women to file for divorce if their husbands are addicted, but the bill has yet to be approved by the Guardians' Council before being enacted.)
Men are legally entitled to polygamy. There is no social or legal support for women in the face of violence or other forms of coercion in the family. Discrimination in employment compels 65% -- or by some accounts 85% -- of the girls who graduate from universities to stay at home. Discrimination in education, sports, entertainment, in the value of blood money, in the share of inheritance and in the value of women's testimony, are among thousands of discriminatory laws and misogynous policies which have led to the spread of poverty, depression and suicide among women, a delirious rise in the number of runaway girls, a consequent spread of prostitution and lowering of the average age of prostitutes to 15, the spread of addiction among young women and social abnormalities such as murder.
In fact, stoning, with all of its horrible dimensions, is a link in a long chain of practices, policies and laws that violate the most fundamental human rights of women under the rule of the mullahs."
The chair of NCRI's Women's Committee also reviewed some of the laws and remarks by officials of the clerical regime in defense of stoning. As a Muslim woman, she stressed that the views, laws and practices of the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran are totally and absolutely irrelevant to Islam. The mullahs abuse Islam to justify their crimes and advance their evil objectives to prolong their rule.
Ms. Chitsaz urged EC and EP deputies attending the meeting and through them the Parliament and Council of Europe to support "the adoption of a strongly-worded, substantive resolution by the current session of the UN General Assembly which condemns the flagrant violations of human rights, and especially women's rights, in Iran" as "a necessary first step" in defending the rights of Iranian women.
Following the meeting at Palais d'Europe, the European representatives discussed with Ms. Chitsaz various ways for effective prevention of the persistence of horrible human rights conditions in Iran.

Executions Reach 282 in 2002

The Iranian state-run television quoted a statement by Tehran's Justice Department on the night of September 23 reporting that five people will simultaneously be hanged at five locations in Tehran this week.
On Sunday, September 22, the state-run daily Jomhouri Islami reported the hanging of a woman in Tabriz prison and Qods daily reported the hanging of a prisoner in Mashad on September 23.
These hangings and execution verdicts bring to 282 the number of executions announced this year. The state-run dailies report a small percentage of executions which do not include the secret executions of political prisoners.
On August 14, the state-controlled daily Jam-e Jam quoted GC Brig. Gen. Javad Khazra'i-Rad, State Security Forces' Mersad Base commander in eastern Iran, as saying that "600 bandits were executed last year" and that "thousands of prisoners had already been sentenced to death."
In addition to public hangings, the mullahs' regime continues to carry out inhuman punishments. In the past five years, 23 people have been sentenced to die by stoning, 16 of them women. Four women are waiting to be stoned to death.
Sentences such as execution by being throwing off from heights, amputation of right arm and left leg and eye-gouging continue to be issued.
The Iranian Resistance calls on competent international bodies and human rights organizations to intervene immediately to stop public executions and barbaric punishments.
It calls on the current session of the United Nations General Assembly to condemn decisively the atrocities perpetrated by the mullahs' ruling Iran, crimes that are unprecedented in the world in the beginning of the third millennium.