Iran may be hanging up to 600 criminals a year as its use of the death penalty intensifies, a lawyer acting for many of the country’s death row prisoners has said.
Mohammad Mostafaei, who is campaigning to save 25 prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed as minors, said he believes the true number of executions far exceeds estimates given by international human rights groups.
“I have calculated there were at least 400 executions last year, but it could be 500 to 600,” he said.
There are no official figures for Iran’s application of capital punishment, which campaigners say ranks second only to China’s. Amnesty International puts last year’s number of executions at 346, up from 317 in 2007. It says 150 have taken place already this year, an average of more than one a day.
Mostafaei’s estimate follows the execution of Delara Darabi, 22, who was hanged on May 1 for allegedly murdering a wealthy elderly relative when she was 17. She initially admitted the murder, but claimed later she was talked into falsely confessing by her boyfriend, the real culprit. Darabi’s parents learnt of her pending execution only when she called them saying she could see a hangman’s noose and pleading for them to save her.
The outcry over her death may have helped reprieve two of Mostafaei’s other clients, Amir Khaleghi and Safar Angooti, who were given stays of execution last week for murders committed when they were 16 and 17 respectively.
But the prospect of Iran lessening its use of capital punishment appears remote after nine prisoners were hanged last Wednesday, four for murder and five for drug trafficking. They included a 30-year-old woman, Zeynab Nazarzadeh, who was convicted of murdering her husband.
Iran’s Islamic legal code permits the death penalty for a range of offences in addition to murder and drug trafficking — including rape, adultery, espionage, armed robbery and being a “corruptor on earth.” Campaigners say executions have soared since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. Some observers suspect the increase in executions is a show of defiance to Western critics of Iran’s human rights record.
Mostafaei said he aimed to reduce the rate by having capital punishment abolished for all those convicted as minors and by restricting its application only to aggravated crimes, such as serial murders.
He also called for its abolition in cases where defendants had killed without intent and where mental health issues were involved.
“If we restrict all these cases, I am sure that the number of executions in our country wouldn’t be this high,” Mostafaei said. “If we accept that 500 to 600 executions are carried out a year, my plan, which would observe religious and Koranic principles, would result in the number declining to perhaps 20 per year.”
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS