Iran to Execute Post-election Demonstrators

Related subjects: Global, Iran, J.E. Robertson, Open Government, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance, The Global Intercept, The Vote Comments (0)

19 November 2009 :: J.E. Robertson

A court in Iran has sentenced 5 people to death for their role in post-election anti-government protests this summer. At least 81 people have been sentenced to jail terms ranging up to 15 years in prison, for protesting the government’s handling of the election and its violent crackdown on the protesters. The government says all 5 are members of “terrorist and opposition groups”, apparently considering opposition to the ruling party a “terrorist” crime.

There can be no appeal, as the appeals process has been exhausted and the court’s decision is now considered final. According to the BBC’s report regarding an Iranian TV broadcast:

“The legal investigations into the cases of these people took place in the presence of their lawyers. So far 89 of the detainees have been tried, 81 of whom have received jail terms differing from six months to 15 years,” the statement said.

“Also, five people were sentenced to death for membership of terrorist and opposition groups. The jail sentences of three of the detainees have been suspended and three people have been acquitted,” it added.

The news that Iran will execute people for their involvement in organizing protest rallies has outraged the international community. Not only do the death sentences violate international humanitarian law, but Iran’s own constitution guarantees the right to assembly and to free speech, except where it degrades Islam.

The implications of the sentences are that the regime’s bosses, Pres. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamene’i, are in fact god-like figures and that criticizing them is equivalent to slandering Islam itself. Opposition figures have criticized the Assembly of Experts, at whose pleasure the supreme leader serves, for not intervening to stop such abuses of the rule of law and religious order.

The prosecution of opposition protest organizers has been a coordinated and far-reaching campaign against dissent. As the Jurist reports, for Pittsburgh University Law School:

Iran began trying some of the arrested protesters [JURIST report] in August. The protesters on trial were charged with crimes [PressTV report] ranging from vandalism and organizing riots to sending pictures of the protests to “enemy media.” In July Iranian officials announced [JURIST report] a plan to either press charges against or release most of those held after the riots. The government released 140 of those initially detained and closed one prison holding protesters after Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] and other groups alleged that some protesters were beaten, deprived of sleep, and threatened with torture in an effort to force false confessions [report text; JURIST report].

There is widespread criticism of the way the prosecutions themselves were carried out. A significant number of international legal observers say from the information available, the trial proceedings do not meet international standards for due process and that they also violate fundamental protections guaranteed under the Iranian constitution itself.

According to the New York Times’ reporting:

Zamani’s trial was a mockery of justice,” the executive director of Amnesty International USA, Larry Cox, said in a statement. “To impose the death sentence is beyond deplorable. Iran should immediately rescind this sentence.”

… There have been many charges of protesters’ being tortured while in prison, and the government has agreed that some prisoners were abused, although it has continued to dispute accusations that some were raped and sodomized.

There is mounting concern for the fate of over 400 people still held, either without charge, without legal representation or totally incommunicado by Iranian security forces. It appears that as time has passed and the opposition has failed to rally substantial support to depose either Pres. Ahmedinejad or the Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, their power bloc feels empowered to use the harshest methods possible to crush dissent.

Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani, a young doctor working at the Kahrizak detention facility, was found dead, with the cause of death in dispute. Iranian authorities claim he committed suicide, but have given conflicting stories about how he may have suffered violent injuries, required surgery and eventually presented his dead body to the family.

According to Amnesty International:

Iran’s Chief of Police said on Wednesday that Dr Pourandarjani had committed suicide as a result of depression, as he had been summoned to court and was facing a possible five-year prison term.

His father, Reza-Qoli Pourandarjani has questioned suicide as a cause of death. He told the Associated Press that he was initially told that his son had broken his leg in a car accident and needed his  consent for surgery, only for his family to be confronted with his dead body when they travelled to Tehran.

He said his son had been in good spirits when he spoke to him the previous night.

It is unclear what motive there might have been for Dr. Pourandarjani’s murder, but critics of the security forces have speculated that he may have been unhappy about systematic abuse alleged to have been carried out against detainees, which if true suggests he may have been killed in order to silence him.

Dr. Pourandarjani is reported to have witnessed much of the reported abuse that took place at the facility during the summer, when thousands of protesters and opposition supporters were detained. Amnesty adds that “Before his death he had allegedly received threats to deter him from revealing the extent of the abuse that had taken place at Kahrizak. He was said to have told friends he feared for his life.”

Tehran’s prosecutor’s office claims his death is now being investigated, though the direction of the investigation, or the grounds for suspicion of foul play have not been made public. Rights groups have sought to raise the profile of the Pourandarjani case, and believe it is a clear sign that if he was murdered to keep prisoner abuse quiet, the abuse must have been brutal, far-ranging and in some cases included murder.

Amnesty International demands that any Tehran investigation into the allegations begin immediately and that it meet UN-mandated standards for the investigation of official abuses and violence against civilians, under the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions.

• Ahmedinejad Calls for ‘Merciless’ Prosecution of Political Rivals
• Iran Opens 4th Mass Trial of Opposition Supporters
• Iran Closes Opposition Newspaper, Bans Protest Over Closure
• Iran Opens ‘Riot’ Trials for Opposition Protesters
• Iran Prisoner Abuse Stokes Outrage Against Government
• Khatami Calls for Referendum to Judge Iran Government’s Legitimacy
• Iran Government Attacks Civilians During Friday Prayers
• Rafsanjani Decries Iran Crackdown, Urges Release of All Political Prisoners (updated)
• Iran Association of Researchers & Teachers of Qom Declares Vote-count Illegitimate
• Iran’s President Ahmedinejad Orders Probe into Shooting Death of Neda Soltan
• Iran’s Guardian Council Finds Ballots Cast Exceeded Number of Voters in 50 Cities
• Massive Opposition Rally in Tehran Mourns Slain Demonstrators (video)
• Pro-Mousavi Demonstrations & Iranians’ Constitutional Rights (video)
• Iran Opposition Movement Forces Khamenei to Investigate
• Iran Crackdown: Is it Tacit Admission Vote was Rigged?
• Iran Declares Ahmedinejad Winner, Results Widely Questioned as Fraudulent