Amnesty International: Urgent Action
update ua 76/07 Iran (MDE 13/066/2007) - boy, 17, hanged; 6 others tortured,
face imminent execution
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE
13/066/2007
05 June 2007
Further Information on UA 76/07 (MDE
13/034/2007, 22 March 2007) Fear of imminent execution/ torture
IRAN Sa'id Qanbar Zahi (m), aged 17
]
Javad Naroui (m) ]
Ma'soud Nosrat Zahi (m)
]
Houshang Shahnavazi (m)
] members of Iran’s Baluchi minority
Yahya Sohrab Zahi (m)
]
Ali Reza Brahoui (m) ]
Abdalbek Kahra Zahi (also know as
Abdalmalek) (m) ]
Seventeen-year-old Sa’id Qanbar Zahi was
hanged on 27 May inside the prison of Zahedan, the capital of
Sistan-Baluchistan province. International law absolutely prohibits the use
of the death penalty against child offenders. The other six men named above
remain at risk of imminent execution.
All seven men were sentenced to death in March
and are members of Iran’s Baluchi community. It appears that they may have
been arrested because of their family ties to those suspected of involvement
in blowing up a bus carrying members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps
on 14 February in Zahedan, in which at least 14 people were killed.
According to local press reports, Sa’id Qanbar
Zahi and four of the other six men "confessed" on Iranian state
television to a number of crimes which allegedly took place in
Sistan-Baluchistan, including bomb attacks against officials,
carjackings and murder. Some or all were also accused of involvement
in hostage taking follow a March 2006 bomb attack in the town of Tasuki. The
televised "confessions" linked an Iranian Baluchi armed opposition
group, Jondallah, also known as the Iranian Peoples’ Resistance
Movement (Jonbesh-e Moqavemat-e Mardom-e Iran), to these crimes, and
to the 14 February bus bombing. There are unconfirmed reports that the five
who "confessed" were tortured: this included having bones in their
hands and feet broken; being "branded" with a red-hot iron; and having
an electric drill applied to their limbs, shredding their muscles.
There is no new information about Javad Naroui,
Ma’soud Nosrat Zahi, Houshang Shahnavazi, Yahya Sohrab Zahi, Ali Reza
Brahoui and Abdalbek Kahra Zahi.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Sa’id Qanbar Zahi was the second child
offender to be executed in Iran this year. On 22 April, 19-year-old Mohammad
Mousavi was reportedly hanged in Shiraz. He had apparently been sentenced to
qesas (retribution) for a murder committed when he was 16 years old.
The execution of child offenders - those under 18 at the time of the offence
- is absolutely prohibited under international law, including the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. Despite this, Iran
continues to sentence to death, and execute, child offenders. Amnesty
International has recorded the executions of 24 child offenders in Iran
since 1990, 10 of whom were under 18 when executed. At least four child
offenders were executed during 2006.
Iran’s Baluchi minority lives mainly in the
southeast of the country, and is believed to constitute between one and
three percent of the total population of around 70 million. Mainly Sunni
Muslims, they have for many years complained of discrimination by the
Iranian authorities.
Jondallah has carried out a number of
armed attacks on Iranian officials and has on occasion killed hostages. It
reportedly seeks to defend the rights of the Baluchi people, though
government officials have claimed that it is involved in drug smuggling and
terrorist activities and has ties to to foreign governments.
There have been widespread arrests of members of
the Baluchi minority in the wake of such attacks. According to a 15 March
BBC report, Sistan-Baluchistan television stated that at least two
people were hanged in connection with the 14 February attack on the bus
carrying Revolutionary Guards. At least 17 other people are reported to have
been either sentenced to death or executed in connection with the March 2006
attack in Tasuki, in which up to 22 people were reportedly killed. In an
interview with the Iranian newspaper ‘Ayyaran on 17 March,
parliamentarian Hossein Ali Shahryari stated that prisons in
Sistan-Baluchistan province held more than 700 people under sentence of
death. In 2006, at least 177 people were executed in Iran. Possibly
as many as a third of these were members of Iran’s Baluchi minority.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to
arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, Arabic, English or your own
language:
- condemning the execution of Sa’id Qanbar
Zahi, a 17-year-old Baluchi who was put to death in Zahedan prison on 27 May,
an act which was in contravention of international law provisions
prohibiting the execution of those under the age of 18 at the time of the
alleged offence;
- calling on the authorities to implement the
recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child by
immediately stopping the executions of those who were under the age of 18 at
the time of the alleged offence;
- asking for information about the legal status
of Javad Naroui, Ma’soud Nosrat Zahi, Houshang Shahnavazi, Yahya Sohrab
Zahi, Ali Reza Brahoui and Abdalbek Kahra Zahi, and seeking assurances that
they are being treated humanely and calling on the authorities to commute
their death sentences immediately;
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes
the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice those
suspected of criminal offences, but opposes the death penalty as the
ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, Leader of the
Islamic Republic
The Office of the Supreme Leader, Shahid Keshvar
Doost Street, Tehran. Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 251 774 2228 (mark
“For the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah Khamenei")
Email: via website
http://www.leader.ir/langs/EN/index.php?p=sendletter
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Justice
Building, Panzdah-Khordad Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 3390 4986 (please
keep trying)
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir
(In the subject line: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Governor of Sistan - Baluchistan province
Mr Dahmarde, Governor
Fax: +98 541 3231990
E-mail: info@sb-ostan.ir
Salutation: Dear Sir
COPIES TO: diplomatic representatives of
Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check
with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending
appeals after 17 July 2007.
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Posted: 20070605
A letter to Amnesty International from Radio Balochi
FM
URGENT ACTION:Iran/Balochistan: Fear of imminent execution/
torture
فوري فوري: هفت جوان بلوچ در معرض خطر اعدام
URGENT URGENT
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