AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
‎
Public Statement
‎
AI Index: MDE 13/110/2007
(Public)
News Service No:171
‎5 September 2007 ‎
‎
‎ ‎ Amnesty International is appalled at the reports of the execution of 21 people in Iran this ‎morning, bringing the total number of executions recorded by the organization since the ‎start of 2007 to 210.
‎
This figure exceeds the 177 executions recorded in 2006, although the true figure for both ‎years is likely to be higher. At least two child offenders were among those executed to ‎date in 2007.
‎
Amnesty International has catalogued scores of unfair trials in recent years and the ‎organisation is concerned that many of those executed today faced unfair trials, and a ‎failure to ensure that fair trial safeguards in death penalty cases are implemented in all ‎cases without exemption or discrimination.
‎
Under Iranian law, the accused has no right to legal representation prior to being formally ‎charged. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions ‎has stated that all defendants facing the imposition of capital punishment must benefit ‎from the services of a competent defence counsel at every stage of the proceedings
‎
The scope of capital crimes in Iran remains extraordinarily large and includes vaguely ‎worded charges, such as "enmity against God" (moharebeh ba Khoda) "being corrupt on ‎earth" (mofsed fil arz), which refer, inter alia, to those accused of using firearms against ‎the state; carrying out acts of robbery and to those who are considered to be carrying out ‎espionage against the government. These crimes, including those of are adultery by ‎married people, and same-sex sexual conduct, regarded as a crime against God and as ‎such are not subject to pardon. Discretionary laws over which judges have the power to ‎impose the death penalty include those relating to national security offences.
‎
Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a ‎state party states: "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of ‎death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes..." The UN Human Rights ‎Committee, the independent body that reviews states' implementation of this treaty has ‎stated: "The Committee is of the opinion that the expression 'most serious crimes' must be ‎read restrictively to mean that the death penalty should be a quite exceptional measure." ‎Furthermore, Safeguard 1 of the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of ‎Those Facing the Death Penalty, adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council in ‎‎1984, states: "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, capital ‎punishment may be imposed only for the most serious crimes, it being understood that ‎their scope should not go beyond intentional crimes, with lethal or other extremely grave ‎consequences."
‎
At least four of the executions today, in Shiraz, were carried out in public, although the ‎UN Human Rights Committee has stated: "Public executions are... incompatible with ‎human dignity." At least two of those executed in Shiraz appeared to have belonged to ‎Iran's Baluchi minority. Amnesty International is concerned that members of Iran's ‎Baluchi minority have formed a significant proportion of those executed in Iran.
‎
Amnesty International continues to urge the Iranian authorities to stop executing child ‎offenders; to implement all required safeguards in capital cases and to limit the scope of ‎crimes punishable by death, as a first step towards its total abolition. The organisation is ‎calling for an immediate moratorium on executions in Iran. The UN General Assembly's ‎‎(UNGA) 62nd session in October 2007 will vote on a resolution calling for a global ‎moratorium on executions, to be introduced as a step towards the abolition of the death ‎penalty. Amnesty International calls on Iran to halt the continuing use of this most ‎extreme penalty, which is a gross violation of human rights and to back this resolution.
‎
The organisation also calls on the people of Iran to support the campaign entitled "Stop ‎the Death Penalty: The World Decides," initiated by World Coalition against the Death ‎Penalty (WCADP) and other non-governmental organizations by signing an online ‎petition found at:

‎http://www.worldcoalition.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=10&sel_lang=english
‎