Four condemned Sunnis 'abused and tortured' as they await execution in Iran

                  

Iranian regime has stepped up its persecution of the Sunni minority with death sentences imposed on four political prisoners. 

The four - named as Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molai, Jamshid Dehghani and Djahanguir Dehghani - have written an open letter protesting at the abuses, torture and lies by regime officials since their arrest.

They wrote on November 27: "We were arrested in 2009 and accused of preaching in favor of Sunni Islam. We were placed in isolation and suffered unbearable torture. The trial court sentenced us to death.

 "After the confirmation of our death sentence, the wardens took us to the the gallows on several occasions, and after making us suffer intense psychological torture, they took us back to our cells. At present, we are in limbo and still held in Rajai-Shahr Prison."

The prisoners also denounced lies broadcast on sate-run television giving the reasons for their imprisonment.

Eleven Sunnis have been sentenced to death in the past two weeks and are also awaiting execution in Gohardasht prison, 40km from Tehran.

Several Sunni clerics, including Nasser Piri and Molavi Hafez are also currently imprisoned without trial.

Mr Ahmed Shaheed، UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights situation in Iran recently expressed his concern over the persecution of religious minorities in Iran and in a news conference in Oslo, on 22 November 2012 said:

"I am troubled by the treatment of various minority groups in the country، who all too often bear the brunt of repressive policies. These include unrecognized religious minorities like the Baha’i and Yarsan، as well as recognized but increasingly suppressed religious communities like Christians and certain Sunni Muslim communities. I am also deeply concerned about ethnic minorities، including the Baluch، Kurdish، Ahwazi Arab، Turkmen، and Azerbaijani peoples، whose plights are often compounded by linguistic and cultural subjugation، in additional to political repression."

The majority of Iranians are Shiite Muslims, but Sunnis are Iran's second religious community numbering around ten million people.