The Iranian regime executed seven prisoners at dawn on Wednesday in Rajai Shahr Prison, a.k.a. Gohardasht Prison, bringing the total number of executions in February to 13.
This included six men and one woman, all convicted of murder. However, it should be understood that Iran does not separate murder by degrees, so many people convicted of murder may have killed by accident (i.e., manslaughter) or in self-defence. Many women who are victims of abuse may be executed for killing their abuser.
In fact, the woman executed, Zahra Esmaili, was a domestic violence victim who killed her husband in self-defence. The 42-year-old, who is the 114th woman executed during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, was regularly beaten by her detective husband.
On Monday, the mother of two was moved to solitary confinement in Qarchak prison in Varamin, where she’d been serving her sentence, before being moved to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj on Tuesday.
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Fundamental Violations of Human Rights in Iran
In recent weeks, the Iranian regime has executed three other women in prisons in Ardabil, Sanandaj, and Karaj. The regime, which is the world leader in executions per capita, is also number one in executions of women. Most of these executions are handed out for offences where international law prohibits the death penalty, including in the many murder cases that should be tried by lesser degrees.
In the seven-and-a-half-year rule of Rouhani, a supposed moderate, over 4,300 people have been killed. Although, as always, it’s important to note that the regime carries out many executions in secret, so the number many be much higher.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has published a list of all the women executed under Rouhani, which is based on reports from the state-run media and the Resistance’s network of supporters inside Iran.
In a post on Wednesday, they reiterated their call to ban the death penalty in Iran, something that is covered in their 10-point plan for a Free Iran.
The Iranian regime uses executions and other repressive measures to intimidate the public against taking part in popular protests.
Th UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council, and other human rights groups should take immediate action to save Iranian prisoners on death row. Human rights organizations such as Iran HRM have also called for the regime’s human rights violations dossier to be referred to the UN Security Council and for regime officials to face justice for crimes against humanity.
