Facts about death penalties in Iran

Posted on | februari 10, 2011 | No Comments

Nearly every day, someone in Iran is executed. Iran has had more than 85 executions during the month of January. The executions mainly happen inside the prisons early in the morning. The persons who are condemned to death are mainly charged with drug trafficking, rape, murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, apostasy. Some of these crimes are labelled as Moharebeh, enemy of God¹.

A woman who is committing adultery will be sentenced to death by stoning. Other degrading punishments in Iran are lashing and amputation of hands of feet. Lashing is used for people who are convicted for almost any offence, like immoral acts, drinking alcohol, political activism. Amputation of the limbs is used for people who are convicted for stealing. This is also labelled as Moharebeh. These punishments are described is the Iranian Penal law. The criminal legal age of consent is 15 years for boys and 9 years for girl. Very often, people get arrested without a trial. Most of the known cases are political activists, bloggers, human rights defenders, anyone that the authorities believe is a security risk.

People do disappear after being arrested, but we should keep in mind that Iran is a big country and the civil society is very limited and constantly under pressure. We don’t always know what happens all around the country. But at the resent moment we have unofficial reports about mass-executions in a prison in northeast of the country (Mashhad), but it is very difficult to get more details, and even speak to their families. The families of the people who are arrested of executed are under pressure from the intelligence service not to speak to any journalists or activists.

1. Moharebeh (محاربة) (also muharebeh ) is the title of crime in Islamic law that has been translated in English language media sources variously as “waging war against God,” “war against God and the state,” “enmity against God,” or being an “enemy of God”. It is a capital crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran. (Wikipedia)

Facts about death penalties in Iran

Some facts from Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2009
* Number of executions announced by the official Iranian media: 339 (282 in 2008)
* Total number of the executions including those not announced by the official media:402 (350 in 2008)
* In average more than one person was executed everyday in 2009
* Number of the executions in 2009 increased with about 20% with respect to 2008
* Highest number of the executions were in the month before the elections (May ;50 executions) and the month after the elections (July; 94 executions)
* At least 5 minor offenders were hanged in Iran in 2009
* 13 women were executed in 2009
* At least one person (man) was stoned to death in 2009

Crimes vs penalty IRAN /death penalty
* Fornication // 100 lashes or death penalty
* Adultery // stoned
* Same sex relations, anal sex // 100 lashes or death penalthy
* Obscene audio-visual products // death penalty
* Drinking // 80 lashes or death penalthy
* Armed & political offences // death penalty
* Assassination attempt on Iranian and foreign leaders // death penalty
* Apostas // not clear, but besides Islam, only Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians are recognised
* Drug- related offences // death penalthy (smuggling more than 5 kilograms of opium, cannabis or grass etc into Iran; buying, keeping, carrying or hiding more than 5 kilos of opium and the other aforementioned drugs, on the third conviction; smuggling into Iran, dealing, producing, distributing and exporting more than 30 grams of heroin, morphine, cocaine or their derivatives.)
* Discrimination in favour of fathers and grandfathers // In February 2008, a man took the law into his own hands when he stoned his 14-year-old daughter, Sa’eedeh, for her relationship with a boy in Zahedan (Quds newspaper, 13 February 2008). The man said that he had shot his daughter four times after stoning her. There have been no further reports as to how the judiciary has dealt with the case. However, under the patriarchal provisions of the IPC, “a father (or paternal grandfather) who kills his child” (or grandchild) “will be sentenced to payment of diyeh [compensation] to survivors of the victim and ta’zir [discretionary punishment]” (Article 220). Survivors of the victim, i.e. the mother if the father is the killer (or parents, if the grandfather is the killer), generally forgo the demand for punishment.

AUTHOR: Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam
URL: http://iranhr.net/
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