Execution Without Scrutiny
20 November 2007
Maryam Houleh
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On Sunday, July 22, 2007, at dawn, 12 people were executed inside Evin prison. The previous week, four other individuals had also been executed in Evin on similar charges.
Thanks to widespread protests by human rights advocates, these types of group executions have been rare, particularly in the last ten years. In isolated cases, judicial authorities have attempted to avoid publicizing the executions or have only given the most basic, relevant details through the media.
Nonetheless, the news of the July 22 killings was not only formally announced in a statement by the Prosecutor’s Office of Tehran, but Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi himself issued a separate press release announcing the executions.
In this press release, which was published by Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), Fars, and the News Agency of the Islamic Republic (IRNA), in addition to announcing the executions of the four criminals from the previous week, Mortazavi stated that “these 16 hoodlums have deprived citizens of their security and peace, and – through kidnapping, rape and hooliganism – have disturbed public peace and security. They have been sentenced to death through a legal process and, with the approval of the Supreme Court, a verdict has been carried out.” Mortazavi requested the death sentences in accordance with the government’s new Plan for Increasing Public Security.
The charges against some of the executed individuals included “kidnapping, rape, and hooliganism” as well as drug trafficking, arson, fighting and “spreading corruption on earth.” Even more unusual than the heavy sentences for these charges were the actions of the state television station, which broadcast videos of the condemned and interviews with them at the gallows.
A day after the announcement of the executions by the Prosecutor’s Office and subsequent extensive state media coverage, Mohammad Ali Ebrahim-Khani, head of the Penal Courts of Appeals of Tehran, in an interview with ISNA about the cases of the arrested “hoodlums,” said: “The Prosecutor’s Office has demanded that several individuals be executed; if it is believed that these criminals should be executed, there should be a formal indictment. However, in these cases, no formal indictment was delivered.”
Ebrahim-Khani spoke about additional concerns surrounding the executed individuals: “Some of these crimes were committed long before this series of arrests in the name of the Plan to Increase Public Security – as long as a year ago, in some cases.”
The Prosecutor of Tehran claims in his official statement that, “the Prosecutor’s Office of Tehran painstakingly addresses such crimes and prepares the files for trial as quickly as possible in order for the competent courts to return a verdict.” In his statement, he also emphasizes “the finality of the death sentence.” However, Ebrahim-Khani told ISNA, “Because the original files were not sent to us, we requested them from the Prosecutor’s Office. We need them to process the case.” Also, according to Ebrahim-Khani, if the Prosecutor is calling for execution, there needs to be a formal indictment: “Upon closer examination of the files, no formal indictment was included. In these instances, these cases fall into the jurisdiction of Tehran’s Penal Courts, and because the crimes are punishable by death, original files are needed for processing.”
Referring to the severe measures taken by the Prosecutor’s Office of Tehran to issue and enforce the death sentence of the arrested persons charged under the Plan for Increasing Public Security, Ebrahim-Khani added, “Due to the harsh nature of the death penalty compared to other punishments, the original files should have been sent and time should have been allowed for the defense to build a case against the execution of the defendants. Without these files, examining the case is very difficult and bringing about the desired result even more difficult.” According to the Head of Tehran’s Penal Courts, “None of the 14 accused were handed over to us while, in a few of the cases, very light sentences, such as bail set at 8 million toman, have been issued, which seem disproportionate to the crimes outlined in the files.”
Ebrahim-Khani dubbed the case of the recently executed individuals “a collection of ambiguities” and added that “all these ambiguities together moved us to ask the Prosecutor’s Office for an explanation as to how to address these discrepancies.”
If this issue is not addressed, the Prosecutor’s Office of Tehran may very well repeat these killings with another 17 people currently incarcerated in Tehran. Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, the Head of Iran’s Law Enforcement, in a July 25 speech at the Conference on Police, Society, and Public Security, listed countering various dimensions of a “soft revolution” as being one of the reasons for implementing the Plan for Increasing Public Security.
The statements of the Head of Law Enforcement reinforce the opinions of critics who believe that the Plan for Increasing Public Security launched by the police is a function of the rise in public dissatisfaction in light of the failures of the Iranian government. In particular, Ahmadi-Moghaddam, in statements published by ISNA, claims, “If the program of rounding up thugs and hoodlums had not been implemented, you would have seen, after the rationing of gas, how these people would – through subversive networks in the country – go around in gangs looting and disturbing the peace.”
Over a decade ago, the newspaper Salam published brief and piecemeal news about the murder of dissidents in Tehran. After that, during the scandal of chain murders of writers and intellectuals, a program dubbed “Hit the Ruffians” (lat-ha zadan), an expression used for killing well-known dissidents, was planned and carried out by officials in the wake of public uprisings in a few cities, particularly the public uprising in Islamshahr. Those who carried out this program believed that “ruffians,” or according to the more recent epithet “thugs and hoodlums,” would act against the government if any civil uprising occurred and would play the role of “leaders” in civil uprisings. Moreover, their execution can be carried out easily and without provoking social unrest. These executions also demonstrated to the people how the government will deal with adversaries in future uprisings.
The Plan for Increasing Public Security by the police bears an uncanny resemblance to the “Hit the Ruffians” program of a decade ago, as revealed in statements by the Head of Law Enforcement and the group execution sentences issued without formal indictments. One difference is that, a decade ago, the architects of that program had to keep a low profile and were subsequently, and in the course of the disclosure of chain murders of intellectuals, imprisoned, albeit in certain instances. Today, the government and Parliament are under the control of the same people perpetrating these injustices and they silence pens without fear and shed blood and fill prisons with women and students and journalists.
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