PUNISHMEN BY EXECUTION IN
Democracy-lovers, free-thinkers, and all who
have gathered here to show their dedication to the common cause of preserving
human rights! Ladies and Gentlemen!
All
of us share in one ideal and that is considering democracy and observing
indispensable human rights as the first priority in our social struggle;
wishing to realize equal rights for all human beings, regardless of their
ideological, racial, lineal, and sexual differences; and knowing that the first
and foremost of these rights , according
to Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the source and the
foundation agreed by all the audience, all national and international human
rights organizations, and by many states all over the world, including the
Islamic Republic of Iran, is:
“Everyone has the right to live, and to be personally free and secure.”
Thus, if any Articles of this universal document has not been included
in the legal basis dominating the societies of some countries that claim to
have accepted the observance of human rights and that have put their signatures
under the UDHR document, IRI included; or if such Articles as its Article 3
were not enforced in them, it means that they are violating human rights
apparently and intentionally.
IRI has been performing punishment by execution according to its
domestic law and at times in contrast with them, although performing such verdicts is incompatible with
the international documents it has accepted.
In this speech, I will firstly try to describe the origins of
Punishment
by execution in
Presenting case{s} for each of the origins;
and lastly, I will propose ways to eliminate crimes that necessitate death
penalty in
A. ORIGINS OF PUNISHMENT BY EXECUTIO IN
A.1 Political Origin
A.2 Religious and Religious Precepts Origins
A.3 Security Origin
A.1 Political Origin of the Death Sentence
in
States such as Islamic Republic of Iran
that consider the continuance of their existence as their first priority, may
resort to any means such as physical elimination of whom they regard as their
enemies or who are really their opponents, to meet their goal, for any excuse,
including ideological beliefs, economic interests .etc.
Political and ideological prisoners, military operations captives, and
those who think about overthrowing the existing regime are expected to be
executed or physically eliminated by other means.
A.2 Religious and Religious Precepts Origins
of the Death Penalty in Iran Today, and the types of execution enforced upon
this basis
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been built
upon theocracy and the Islamic religious
doctrines; in such countries as it is, the law is built on the basis of
religious beliefs from which the issuance and
The enforcement of the death penalty
verdicts may not be excluded.
A.3 Security Origin of Punishment by
Execution in
At times, the judiciaries of the states may
allow the issuance and the enforcement of the death penalty verdicts, because
they feel that their security is being put into danger; this may happen without
commitment of a crime by the executed, but only for they have begun to think
about it, or they have got the means to commit it.
As the IRI authorities have been in danger of being assassinated since
the time they came to power, and collective murders by bomb blasts in public
buildings was frequent, cases of such a type of death sentence is still being
enforced in my country.
These
three origins do not always work individually in the issuance and the enforcement
of the death penalty verdicts; at times two or more of these origins may work
together to realize executions, but
always one origin lays at their basis. I will return to the point in my
descriptions, below.
B .The Cases of the Different origins of
Death Penalty in Iran Today
B.1 the cases of Execution with Political
Origins in IRI
B.1.1 Executions that followed the Islamic
revolution in
The first wave of executions came at the
dawn of IRI power, in
February 1979{Bahman
1357}, in which many statesmen and army Generals of the Shah’s regime were
sentenced to death by the
Order of his successor, Ayatollah Khomeini,
as the first IRI leader
, as Khalkhali,
the executor, confessed in his diary later. Two other waves also fallowed it,
in which air force and navy officers were sentenced to death , When the events
called ”Novzheh
Coup d’etat occurred and a navy officers’ alliance,
which was accused of taking part in a conspiracy against IRI, according to the assertions
of the authorities, was detected.
These three waves of execution, of course, had political origins, although
they were performed under religious disguise, and the executed were called “corruptors
on the earth “and” warriors against god “; the names that the IRI statesman
gave to any of their serious criticizers or opponents. The root cause of such executions
was the change of political power in
B.1.2 The Execution
of the members of political opponent groups in 1980s {1360s}
The forth wave of executions came in the
year 1981{1360}, when the free-thinking political powers begun to consolidate
their independent political positions, and making their own voice announced, in
the national and the international arena. In this
Wave that came after the beginning
of the
The maturity of their population
were from non-Farsi-speaking Ethnicities, such as
Was also originally political, but
it was performed with before- mentioned
religious excuses.
At the beginning, 20-30 people a day were
sentenced to death and their names were announced in the media; but soon it was
known that the people showed negative reaction against these wholesale executions
and this persuaded IRI agents to execute its political opponents, but not to
announce their names and numbers. This wave was not interrupted during 8 years
of destructive war between
In this wave members and partisans of Fadaiian ,
Rahe Kargar,
Mojahedin, Peykar, Kurdistan Democratic Party,
Kumeleh, Turkmen People’s Movement, Arab People’s
movement in Khuzestan, Islamic People’s Movement in Azerbaijan, Toodeh
Parti and many other political organizations were executed. The
trend went on, until winter 1983{1361} and then spring 1983{1362}, when the
leaders and cadres of the Tudeh Party and then Fadaii{axariyat}
Were arrested
In 1987{1365} Fadaian{Axariyat}
forbore a strong stroke after
Its congress which was held
abroad, and then its leaders and cadres returned to
1. This wave appeared after the end of
8-year war between Iran and Iraq, which happened in spring 1988{1367}; and the
excuse that the anti- revolutionary “gangs” were weakening the Islamic state in
the war which was imposed upon it by the rest of the world was fully
disappeared.
2.In
a very short period of time which lasted nearly one month , thousands of
political activists where either hanged or shot down in prisons, Many of whom
had forborne or were about to finish their periods of imprisonment before they
were executed; The names and particulars of more than 2000 ones was published
by Mujahedin, but their numbers are said to be much
more , because they were buried in collective graves without any tombs or
tombstones ; and even their places are unknown to anybody except those who
buried them . It is said that Kavaran collective
graveyard was also unknown until a hand of one of the executed Toodehiis, named Kioumars Zarshenas, which was remained out of ground, was seen by a
pilgrim.
Some say their number amounted even to 16 thousands, but
No one knows the real number.
3.
The religious color of these executions was much more explicit than the
executions which happened beforehand, although they were also of political origin
as they were. Four persons who were charged by Ayatollah Khomeini to organize these
executions
Asked four questions from each of the
political prisoners :} Are you a worshipper of god; Are you a Muslim; 3. Do you
accept the Islamic Republic of Iran; and do you perform prayers? The negative
answers to the first three necessitated death penalty, and a negative answer to
the fourth was followed by lash blows until the accused asserted that he {or
she} would perform prayers thereafter.
This wave of executions happened after the issuance of Social Security’s
declaration enforcing ceasefire between
The then deputy-leader of IRI, Ayatollah Hosein
ali Montazeri wrote two
letters to Ayatollah Khomeini, objecting him for his order to execute political
prisoners; but he could not only make any changes in the course of those
catastrophic events, but he himself was also disfavored by the leader, and
enforced to live under restriction in his own house in Qom.
What he wrote to the then leader and to the four persons who were
appointed to enforce those executions works well to reveal the nature and the
extent of the so-called “national catastrophe”. He wrote in his first letter to
Ayatollah Khomeini, on
“…The execution of the detainees of the recent events {he meant the
’Eternal Brightness’ assault and ’Mersad’ counter-
assault} is being accepted by the nation and the society and will not
apparently have any adverse effects; but the execution of those
who have been in prisons beforehand :1}’…in
the present situation will be treated as
a sign of our revengefulness….’;2} ‘…Will make many families that are typically
devoted to the religion and are
revolutionary, uneasy and bereaved….so that they will be
discouraged ‘ ; 3}‘ many of them are not steadfast in their beliefs
, but
some extravagant responsible persons treat them as steadfast prisoners’; 4} ‘In
the present situation in which recent prisoners and assaults by Saddam has
given us the status of oppressed , and many media and personalities are
defending us, it is not expedient to allow the adverse propaganda to be started
against us.‘ ; 5}’the individuals who has been sentenced to convictions less
than death by the courts and according to some standards previously, should not
be executed without premises , and without having performed any new activities
; doing this means being indifferent to judicial
Standards and the judges’ verdicts‘;
6}’…Being affected by the atmosphere is too frequent, and many innocent or less
guilty individuals may be executed by the orders of your Excellency’;
7} ‘we have not obtained any results from
assassinations and coercion. At The present time however, we have increased
propaganda against us…It is appropriate to increase mercy and kindness for a
while.‘ ;8} ‘ If you are insistent
towards the enforcement of your orders, at least tell them to consider the consensus of the
judge, the attorney General and the Intelligence responsible as the decision
criterion….The women, particularly the pregnant ones, should also be excluded’;
9} executing many thousands of individuals during a few days may have adverse
results and may not be free from mistakes.’ ”
The state authorities wanted to suppress the adverse socio-economic
consequence of Iran-Iraq war on the people’s life, by showing coercion to the
political activists who might unite to overthrow the Regime by the utilization
of these consequences, as the statesmen anticipated.
A
relative of one of the victims of these events says in his interview with Shahrvand newspaper of
Actions or they are ashamed of doing what
they did? If they really believe in them, then why are they ashamed of
disclosing them, even 20 years after they performed them? Why do they try to
prevent everyone from knowing or hearing anything about them?”
After criticizing the restrictions imposed upon the executed individuals’
families for gathering together in their cemetery, by the state authorities and
functionaries, this interviewee asks: ”If
You performed properly, be steadfast in it,
but if you are ashamed of performing it show that in your behavior.”
And, answering a question regarding ‘to forgive but not to
Forget’, about the events of the year
1988{1367}, he says:” I believe the youth sacrificed themselves to a better
world, free from
Ugliness and abomination .Thus, revenge
does not serve their ideals. If we do not think to ourselves but to them, we
will have to prefer forgiveness to vengeance.
“But we should not forget that the forgiveness
needs its premises. Firstly, the responsible persons
should describe how and why they performed that way. Then our dear ones’
testaments should be delivered to us. After that, the place of the tombs should
be specified. And lastly, the tombstone for each of the executed should be
installed, specified by an appropriate writing on it. This is the only way that
forgiveness may be accepted. Forgiveness is a two-way trend; and the forgiven
should perform a minimum of his
{or her} duties”{Siamak Taheri, interview with Khosrow Shemirani ,
B.1.3 Politico-cultural chain murders in
Another wave of executions was a
politico-cultural one named Chain
Murders, which mostly happened in the
second half of 1990s, and its climax came in 1998{1377}. These were unexpected
murders, after which the then minister of Intelligence, Ayatollah Dorri
Najafabadi, was compelled to
resign from his position and to Apologize for Them. After their detection,
these murders were attributed to the defiant individuals in the above-mentioned
ministry. Some persons who had effective and significant roles in performing
them, including Saeed Imami
{Islami},Mostafa Kazemi{Mousavi} ,Alikhani{Hashemi}, who were
high-ranked officers of the ministry, and some others who commonded
their execution or executed them where arrested and tried. Saeed
Imami, who played the first person role in these
chain murders and who was an ex-vice-president and then General Director of the
ministry died in hospital after a doubtful suicide, and his spouse and the
other intelligent Officers accepted the crimes attributed to them as defiant
individuals, in prison. Thus some of the real commanders of these tragic
murders were excluded from the cycle of investigation related to these murders.
The then published magazine, Iran Farda, was
published with the names and particulars of
84 persons murdered in them, Dariush Forouhar, Parvaneh Majd Iskandari{ Forouhar}, political activists and the founders and leaders
of Iran Mellat
Parti, Mohammad
Mukhtari and Mohammad Ja’far
Pouyandeh , Qaffar Hoseini and Ahmad Amir Alaii, cultural activists and famous members of Iranian
Writers Association{kannoon}, Pirouz
Davani and Majid Sharif, political activists , Ahmad Tafazzoli
, Saeedi Sirjani, Ebrahim Zal zaded,
Hamid Haji zadeh , cultural activists and the latter’s young son,
Such murders were also of political origin and were mostly committed to
restrict freedoms of pen and expression of beliefs, as emphasized in Articles 18
and 19 0f UDHR. These restrictions were
significant in extinguishing the
above-mentioned freedoms at the first period of Mr Khatami’s presidency , and the continuance of cultural,
social and political conflicts between his administration and the other reformists,
on the one side and the
Fundamentalist and rightist powers, on the
other.The latter which
Had tolerated an apparent defeat in its
struggle against the
Reformists was trying both to eliminate its
theoretical and ideological Opponents, and show the deficiency of its reformist
competitors in performing social and political development and meeting social
security requirements.
Meanwhile, doubtful letters were written with nicknames such as Mostafa Navvab Safavi ,
the Honored Host OF Mohammad, And the Host
of Islam , in which 80- more than 2000 opponents, free-thinkers, or socio-
politico-cultural activists were threatened to death, the names of the people
who were murdered in this wave were also
included {such letters have at times been published in Iran from then on}.The
last one, containing more than 2000 names has been published in recent days.
B.2 Cases of the religious and the religious
precepts origin of executions in
Besides the catastrophic events of summer
1988{1367}in which the political motives were dominant , but mixed with
religious ones and followed under their disguise, there have also been
absolutely religious and religious precepts death penalties in IRI, the cases
of which I will describe now.
B.2.2 Apostasy
Anybody who is born as a Muslim and accepts
to follow any other religious faith afterwards is an apostate and is put to
death.
B.2.1 Retaliation
Anyone who commits a murder, except for a “lawful”
punishment,
Will be executed executed, unless the first
order relatives of the murdered person forgive him {or her}.
B.2 Adultery
Any married person, who commits adultery,
should be punished by stoning, which mostly leads to death. Many individuals
have been punished this way in
B.2.4 Pederasty
Anybody who commits pederasty should be put
into a Gunni {woolen sack} and thrown down a
mountain.
B.2.5 Drinking Alcoholic Drinks
Anybody who drinks alcohol and in seen by
witnesses for three times, should be punished by being put to death. I myself
saw such
A person waiting to death for many years in
Rajaiishahr{called Ajayebshahr} prison for
this reason, when I was spending my imprisonment period there.
The last four categories may be called executions
of religious percepts origin and treated separately, or brought together under
a broader topic as B2, which was defined above.
There were many cases of such death penalty
verdicts, which were issued and performed and many others which were issued to
be performed according to the religious law, and waiting to it.
Enforcement of such verdicts may be delayed
by some humane judges, but they may not be cancelled, unless by an offsetting
the existing laws.
B.3 Cases of death penalty of a security origin
in Iran Today
There are cases in which the state
authorities enforce executions, because they feel that the society or the
regime’s security may be in danger, directly or indirectly, after a crime is
committed. This category of executions may be enforced before such a
crime occurs and brings about its adverse consequences.
B.3.1 Trading Narcotics
Trading narcotics will put the social and
medical health of the society in real danger, and this may effect the regim’s
survival adversely. So, IRI authorities at times utilize death penalty to
confront it.
B.3.2 Cases as Abducting Aircrafts,
Blasting Bombs, etc
Such cases lead to death penalty, even when
no murders occur.
B.3.3 Threats to the security of IRI itself
Any operation which may put the IRI
survival into danger may lead to punishment by execution, regardless of its
real results, as the members of some non-military parties, or the non-military
members and partisans of the military ones were murdered under the disguise of
negating the state-supported religious beliefs in
Massacre 1988 {1367}. Most of these political
non-military
Groups were not IRI enemies, but
independent parties and organizations, having their own beliefs, way of life
and development, not the
Same as IRI; However, it felt that they
might be a potential danger to its security in some way, if they could sustain
as viable groups and unite as a powerful political power, to oppose it.
Another Way of Categorizing Death Penalties
in
We can divide the death penalties in IRI
another way, too.
They may be divided in two categories:
Firstly, those which a lawful basis, national or international, is at work in
issuing their verdicts and enforcing them; and secondly, those which have no
Such basis behind their practice, and are
issued and enforced through somebody’s command, by some ‘ defiant individuals’
, as the then Intelligence minister called them, as what occurred in the second
half of 1990s.Some are in accord with national laws, but not consistent with
international ones, the cases for which are some
Verdicts of religious and religious
precepts verdicts issued for adultery or apostasy; the case for those which are
not in accord with any law, are political death sentences of 1988 massacre and
the politico-cultural chain murders of late 1990s
C. The Way Out
What can the statesmen, human rights
organizations and individual activists do in such a complex atmosphere to
decrease the rates of death penalties in
I think, the way out of it needs,
Firstly:
To bring the IRI statesmen to the point where they can understand that they
make a representative body of the Iranian people, but not an absolute commander
reigning over them for ever; and reaching such a situation may help them to
live in peace with all parties in national and international arena and to be in
Continuous dialog with them, instead of being hostile with one another; and
this may not be realized by itself, but the people themselves and the human
rights organizations, should devotedly try it;
Secondly: The statesmen should try to make the socio-economic situation better in Iran , instead of increasing
intelligence and military funds which are spent to consolidate the army and buy any kinds of weapons , and maybe mass ones
, and to increase the I intelligence men and devices to frighten everybody
inside the country and abroad;
Thirdly: Everybody should work too long and devotedly to promote and
spread socio-cultural and human rights activities, and to enforce what national and international
legal documents in the domains of human rights, that IRI has accepted by putting its signature
under it ; namely IRI constitutional law and UDHR;
And finally: as the religious fundamentalists are in power now, and this
may be the case afterwards, I think following such aims in the field of human
rights will be much more difficult than what we Might {or may} do under the
reformist’s power, so we should try devotedly and consistently to make the
regime to accept secular law.
This
will be in accord with today life requirements, and will meet and protect the
human rights as much as possible.
Note: this is a copy of the speech I
prepared to deliver in
saving time. I thank Mr.Mehrdad Darvishpour and Mr Hassan Golzar for their effective
comments regarding my speech.
Ali Reza Jabari {Azarang}
Note. This is an edited copy of a speech I
wanted to deliver in Stockholm Seminar on