Death sentences and executions in 2013 35
Golparipour, a Kurdish minority political prisoner. He had been arrested in 2009 and sentenced to death in a five-minute trial in 2010 for “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through his alleged cooperation with a banned armed group, the “Party For Free Life of Kurdistan” (PJAK). His family was not notified beforehand. After his execution, the authorities reportedly refused to hand over his body. In March, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran expressed alarm over the rate of executions, especially in the absence of fair trial standards, the application of capital punishment for offences that do not meet “most serious crimes” standards, and the continuing use of public executions.59 In June, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern that consensual same-sex sexual activity is criminalized and that convicted persons may receive the death penalty.60
An Iranian-Canadian man, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, was released in September and returned to Toronto in October. He and his brother Alborz Ghassemi-Shall had been sentenced to death in 2008 on charges of espionage and cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a political group proscribed in 1981. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall had been convicted of obtaining confidential military information from his brother, who had previously worked as a mechanical engineer in the Iranian army. During successive trial sessions, the men were denied regular access to a lawyer of their choice, obtaining one only when the case was before the Supreme Court. Alborz Ghassemi-Shall died in Evin Prison in Tehran in 2009 under unclear circumstances. In October a man identified as “Alireza M.”, convicted of drug offences, was reported to have survived a 12-minute hanging in Bojnourd prison in north-east Iran. A doctor had declared him dead, but when the prisoner’s family went to collect his body the following day he was found to be still breathing. In the following days, judges stated that he would be executed again once medical staff confirmed that his health had improved. However, on 23 October Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Head of the Judiciary, suggested that “Alireza M.” would be able to lodge an application for a pardon from the Supreme Leader. On 26 October, Ebrahim Hamidi, Justice Chief of Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, announced that 16 individuals had been executed in response to an attack a day earlier near the border with Pakistan, during which a Sunni armed group allegedly killed 14 border guards. The executed men had been sentenced to death several years earlier, half for their alleged membership in an armed militant group in that province, the other half for drugs offences. No claim was made that the men, imprisoned at the time, had been involved in the border attack. For the third year in a row, a stark rise in executions was reported in Iraq. At least 169 people were executed, an increase of more than 30% over the known total for 2012 (at least 129) and the highest figure since 2003. The vast majority of executions in recent years are believed to have followed convictions under Article 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, Law 13 of 2005. This includes a number of nationals of other predominantly Arab states. The law covers, in vague terms, acts such as provoking, planning, financing, committing or supporting others to commit terrorism. The government claims that the death penalty is needed to confront the high level of attacks by armed groups against civilians. There is no evidence to support the position that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime or attacks. The security situation in the country has actually worsened in recent years. No executions have taken place in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq since 2008.
Amnesty International March 2014
Index: ACT 50/001/2014