United Nations Human Rights experts have urged Iran to halt the
execution of five activists of the Ahwazi Arab minority sentenced to
death on charges of corruption, propaganda and ``enmity against God''.
Mohammad Amouri, Sayed Alboshoka, Sayed Alboshoka, Hashem Amouri and
Hadi Rashidi, all founding members of Al-Hiwar, a scientific and
cultural institute, were arrested in their homes in Ahwaz in 2011, ahead
of the sixth anniversary of widespread protests by the Ahwazi
community. Their sentences were recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
``It is absolutely unacceptable for individuals to be imprisoned and
condemned to death for exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful
assembly, association, opinion and expression, and affiliation to
minority groups and cultural institutions,” said the Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed
``Under international law, the death penalty can only be employed
when very strict conditions are met, for example only in respect of the
most serious crimes and only after a trial and appeal proceedings that
scrupulously respect all the principles of due process,” said the
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions,
Christof Heyns.
Heyns also expressed serious concern about the way the trials were conducted.
The Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez expressed grave
concern about the allegations that the activists were subjected to
torture and other ill-treatment in detention as well as having been
forced to sign confessions.
``This is not only in breach of Iran’s international obligations
under the international covenant which imposes an outright prohibition
on torture.
``It is also in breach of Iran’s constitution that explicitly
forbids the use of all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting
confessions or acquiring information,” Méndez said.
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