Iran Executions Increase Since Election

          
          fran Executions Increase Since Election - World Watch - CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com'blogs/2009/08/07/world/worldwatch/entry522...
          World Watch
          August 7, 2009 3:58 AM
          Iran Executions Increase Since Election
          Posted by Tucker Reals
          An Iranian justice official has confirmed
          the execution of 24 convicted drug
          traffickers at the end of July, believed to
          be one of the largest mass-executions
          carried out by the Islamic Republic since
          the revolution brought the Ayatollahs to
          power 30 years ago.
          The message of swift, decisive ‘ justice”
          delivered by Iran's leaders is clear, and
          comes at a time when those leaders, both
          political and religious, are wrestling to
          overcome an image of internal dispute
          and reassert their authority following post-election violence that left at least 30 people dead and
          hundreds jailed.
          Tehran's deputy prosecutor, Malimoud Salarkia, said the 24 were hanged at the notorious Karaj prison
          on July 30th. “Their execution was approved by the supreme court,” said Salarkia, without naming the
          prisoners.
          Iran has killed at least 219 prisoners already this year, according to a tally from the French news
          agency AFP, and the pace of the executions seems to have increased amid the postelection turmoil.
          President Mabmoud Ahamdinejad was sworn in on Wednesday for a second term after his purported
          land-slide reelection on June 12.
          Since then, Iranian police and Basij paramilitary members have cracked down hard on thousands of
          opposition supporters who took to the streets with their claim the vote was rigged on a dramatic scale
          by Abmadinejad and his supporters.
          Also since then, and officially unrelated, [ ran has executed at least 44 drug convicts, 19 Baluch
          minorities convicted of supporting a terrorist group, and possibly two young men sentenced for murders
          (AP Photo/Halabisaz)
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          fran Executions Increase Since Election - World Watch - CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com'blogs/2009/08/07/world/worldwatch/entry522...
          they allegedly committed before the age of 18.
          Thus far, international outrage over the supposedly coincidental uptick in executions amid the
          postelection turmoil has been muted, at best.
          The European Union condemned the July 30 executions and said in a statement that the 27-member
          bloc was “concerned about the continued large-scale use of the death penalty in Iran, including the
          repeated incidence of collective executions during the past month.”
          “The Presidency continues to call on the Iranian authorities to abolish the death penalty completely
          and, in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions,” it added.
          The United States government has made no official remarks on the sanctioned killings.
          Iran came second only to China in the number of prisoners executed during 2008, with a reported total
          of 246. China is believed to have killed as many as 5,000 of its convicts, but that number is
          unconfirmed. In the United States, by comparison, 37 people were executed in state death chambers,
          according to the Death Penalty Information Center .
          Iran did execute 29 people convicted of drug trafficking and other various crimes in July of 2008, but
          this summer's killings come after an apparent push within the Islamic Republic's judiciary to reduce the
          application of the death penalty.
          According to a report by CNN , a spokesman for the judiciary which is handpicked and approved by
          the clerical leadership announced a move to curtail “unnecessary executions” in May this year, the
          month before the presidential elections.
          “Certain measures have been sent to parliament for approval. In particular, regarding cases involving
          unnecessary executions. Those laws are in the process of being changed... We hope to see a reduction
          of such sentences,” Iranian media quoted a judiciary spokesman as saying, according to the CNN story.
          The official cited “a huge development in our laws in recent years.”
          Progress on those reforms, it would seem, has been postponed. A worrying delay as three ill-advised
          American backpackers sit in an Iranian jail after apparently crossing the border illegally.
          Not to mention the 500 or so Iranian dissidents, academics and journalists still awaiting their fate in
          prisons across the country.
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