Amid UN Secretary General’s criticism of human rights conditions in Iran, the country’s chief justice revealed that the judiciary took only “ten days to issue death sentences.”
Ahmad Mohseni Gorkani, the head of Iran’s Supreme Court told Mehr news agency affiliated with the Islamic Propagation Organization, “Final death sentences issued by criminal courts take less than ten days at the Supreme Court to be processed. Three special benches on the court process cases related to rouges, criminals, sexual offenders, mohareb (the Islamic crime of fighting God), robberies and dangerous criminals.”
Gorkani referenced the directive issued by the head of the judiciary ayatollah Sadegh Larijani and said, “Taking months to process these cases has no impact on society, therefore these cases must be processed rapidly and the death sentence implemented.”
He also said that processing cases where the defendant had been sentenced to death was “very easy” adding, “The defendants defense is one or a few hours, and not more because the crime of dangerous criminals is very clear.” He also said that the execution of defendants brought “calm to the public.”
These remarks by a senior judiciary official of the Islamic republic were made just a few days after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s presented a report in which he criticized Iran’s human rights record. The report writes that Iran had intensified the crackdown of its opponents and has increased the number of executions of political prisoners, offending youth, and drug traffickers. The report also expresses the concern of the Secretary General over the execution of flogging, cutting off body organs and stoning of women and men.
Ban Ki-moon calls on the Islamic republic to allow UN special human rights representatives to travel to Iran to investigate these conditions. He adds that despite such UN requests since 2005, Iran has not allowed such trips.
According to international human rights organizations, Iran has the highest rate of execution per capita in the world, based on a report it prepared at the end of 2010. “The number of executions that have taken place in the Islamic republic during 2009 are over 388, which puts Iran in the highest position after China with a population of over 1.3 billion people,” the report observed.
Human Rights Watch announced last month that at least 74 individuals have been executed in Iran since January of 2-11. According to Agence France Press, reports published by Iran’s media indicate that 66 people have been executed.
The regular violations of human rights in Iran has resulted in the appointment of a special investigator on Iran by the Human Rights Council on the proposal of Sweden. The Swedish foreign minister also expressed his deep concern about the deteriorating condition of human rights in Iran. This proposal was also supported by the US permanent representative at the UN.
The International Campaign on Human Rights in Iran also recently revealed a number of mass executions in Iranian prisons in the city of Mashhad, putting the total number of executions at 500.
