Execution of 16 political prisoners in Zahedan, Iran

BPCIF strongly condemns the execution of 16 political prisoners in Zahedan, Iran

31 October 2013

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF) strongly condemns the execution of 16 political prisoners in Zahedan, Iran on 4 October 2013. The prisoners were executed collectively. According to Mohammad Marzieh, the prosecutor general of the city of Zahedan, all of the prisoners were executed in revenge for the killing of a number of revolutionary guards in Saravan.

These arbitrary executions took place when no group has taken responsibility for the attack on the revolutionary guards and Hedayatollah Mir-Moradzehi, Saravan’s representative in Iran’s Parliament, told the Qods Force Tasnim news agency that it is still unclear who carried out the attacks. He stated “Information on this incident is still sketchy”.

BPCIF draws attention to this clear case of collective punishment, which is in violation of international human rights law.

BPCIF further notes that 9 of the 16 executed, in a statement relating to the 1 September attack on Camp Ashraf, Iraq stated: “PMOI members were killed because of defending the rights of Iranian nation… they left their homes and homeland to defend justice and rights of Iranian nation. We, political prisoners, condemn this terrorist atrocity by the Qods Force that was implemented by the army under command of Maliki and we call on supporters of human rights and UN member states to stop these terrorist operations by Iranian regime’s Qods Force and to punish perpetrators and sponsors of these operations.” Executed to strike fear in the people of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, these executions were politically motivated and constitute a crime against humanity.

BPCIF notes that since the inauguration of the new Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, there have been over 270 executions in Iran. BPCIF deplores the number of executions in Iran and supports the call by Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran to refer the Iranian regimes human rights file to the UN Security Council and to the United Nations Human Rights Council for review.

ENDS

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