Amnesty International official: “Iran is a serial human rights offender”

Iran under Hassan Rouhaniwho has attempted to cast himself as moderate is “a serial human rights offender,” the head of policy and government affairs at Amnesty International has declared.
Allan Hogarth whose remarks were published in the Telegraph today said: ”President Rouhani has attempted to cast himself as a mild-mannered reformist figure, but the brutal reality is that Iran is hanging an average of two prisoners a day, the vast majority after unfair trials.”
”The grotesque spectacle of bound, blindfold figures being hauled into the air by cranes in public hangings is a common sight in Rouhani’s Iran.”
Many of these executions were carried out after trials lasting “only minutes,” added Mr Hogarth.
“Iran is a serial human rights offender and Britain needs to confront this fact in any dealings with the country,” he said.
The Telegraph wrote: “During the last decade, the present regime has typically hanged between 500 and 600 Iranians every year. In 1988, the authorities eased the congestion in Iran’s overcrowded jails by executing thousands of political prisoners.
“Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, then acting information minister, was accused of being a member of the official committee which supervised these killings, leading Human Rights Watch to call him a “minister of murder”.
“When Mr Rouhani took office, he immediately promoted Mr Pour-Mohammadi to be Iran’s new justice minister.”