Iran: First Public Executions Since January 2008 Ban Are A Retrograde Step
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
11 July 2008
Index number: MDE 13/095/2008
Iran: First public executions since January 2008 ban are a retrograde step
Amnesty International today deplored the first public executions to be
reported in Iran since the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud
Hashemi-Shahroudi banned such executions on 30 January 2008. It also
expressed great concerns about the new draft Penal Code and other measures
which seek to expand the number of crimes which carry the death penalty.
It called on the Iranian authorities to uphold the ban on public
executions and to take concrete steps to work towards the abolition of the
death penalty, instead of increasing the number of crimes punishable by
death.
The ban on public executions seemed to mark the recognition on the part of
Ayatollah Shahroudi that carrying out executions in public adds to the
already cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the penalty and can only
have a dehumanizing effect on the victim and a brutalizing effect on those
who witness the execution. It is therefore extremely disappointing that
permission was granted for these executions to take place in public, and
for pictures to be circulated by news agencies despite the express
instruction by Ayatollah Shahroudi that images depicting execution victims
should not be published in the media.
Amnesty International was also extremely concerned that a new draft Penal
Code currently under discussion by the Majles (Iran’s parliament) does not
reduce the scope of the death penalty in Iran, but expands it by
introducing for example the crimes of apostasy, heresy and witchcraft into
the Hodoud section of the Penal Code, and specifying the death penalty for
these. Hodoud are crimes against divine will for which the penalty is
prescribed by Islamic law. Another bill reportedly passed on first reading
at the beginning of July aiming at increasing the protection of society's
moral security also makes the creation of blogs and websites promoting
corruption, prostitution and apostasy capital crimes.
The Iranian authorities should progressively and significantly reduce the
number of offences which may incur the death penalty, in accordance with
Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and paragraph 1 of the United Nations Safeguards guaranteeing protection
of the rights of those facing the death penalty, which stipulate that the
death penalty, if it is to be applied at all, should be reserved for only
the most serious crimes.
ENDS…/
For more information please call Amnesty International’s press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or visit our website at http://www.amnesty.org
Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: [email protected]
International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK
www.amnesty.org