Iran: A prisoner hanged in Zabol

NCRI – The Iranian regime’s henchman in the city of Zabol (southeastern Iran) secretly hanged a man on Saturday in the city’s main prison.

The victim identified as Amir Qaemi, was transferred to isolation last Wednesday to await his execution. He had been sentenced to death on drug related offences.

The execution in Zabol takes place after secret hanging of at least 12 inmates on Thursday (26 March 2015) in prisons in cities of Shiraz and Mashhad, according to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

A group of five prisoners were hanged in a prison in the city of Mashhad in northeast Iran while another six were collectively hanged in Pirnia Prison in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran. On the same day, another prisoner was also hanged in Adelabad Prison in the same city.

The growing number of executions, including many carried out in secret, are just trivial examples of the nationwide repression that continues to take place in Iran since Hassan Rouhani became president of the clerical regime.

The latest report on the death penalty by Amnesty International published on April 1 indicates that 607 recorded executions have been carried out in 22 countries around the world in 2014, a reduction of almost 22 percent compared to the previous year.

The reported executions were carried out in Iran more than any country in the world.

In Iran the authorities officially announced 289 executions, but hundreds more were carried out which were not officially acknowledged, Amnesty report said.

Iran is among the countries highlighted by Amnesty International as having used the death penalty "as a tool to suppress political dissent".

Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, reported on March 25 that some 1000 executions had been carried out during the past 15 months in Iran. Prior to that, on March 16, he told a news briefing in Geneva: "There is a lot of concern amongst the Iranian society that the nuclear file may be casting a shadow over the human rights discussion."

The U.N.'s special investigator added that the human rights situation and repression in Iran has worsened since Hassan Rouhani became president.