Execution of Juveniles on the rise in Iran
Fox News, September 14, 2008
Transcript
Less than a year away from its
presidential elections in June 2009, Tehran regime is
besieged by mounting political crises at the top of its
leadership. In a bid to push back the fast-approaching wave,
the ayatollahs are escalating their suppression of Iranians.
The apparent lull in the international campaign against
Tehran’s nuclear weapons program has brought no respite to
those condemned to the gallows inside Iran.
Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNHCHR) expressed grave concern over the violation
of human rights in Iran. U.N. Human Rights official, Rupert
Colville, told reporters "On the 27th of July, for example,
29 executions are reported to have taken place. A month
later, on the 28th of August, another five people, including
a woman, were reported to have been executed. In all, more
than 220 people, including six juvenile offenders, are
believed to have been executed this year in Iran already.''
"Iran's legal obligation not to impose the death penalty for
juveniles was assumed voluntarily when it ratified the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which
prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people
below the age of 18,'' Coleville added.
International outrage over the wave of executions heightened
in late August when the regime executed two teenagers, Reza
Hejazi and Behnam Zare, for crimes they allegedly committed
when they were under 18. On September 10, the state-run
daily Etemad reported that the ayatollahs’ supreme court had
upheld the death sentence for a 17-year-old boy named
Hossein for a crime he allegedly committed when 14.
According to rights groups, 140 minors are awaiting the
death penalty in Iran.
The Italian news agency, Adnkronos International reported
from Tehran on August 18, ''Four young people, who were
minors at the time their crimes were committed, are expected
to be hanged in the next few days.'' The report singles out
''Reza Hajizadeh, who at the age of 13 accidentally killed a
playmate during an argument. He turned 18 recently and was
immediately transferred to death row in Rajaishahr prison on
the outskirts of Tehran.''
On September 4, the European Parliament expressed its grave
concern over massive rights violations in Iran and execution
of juveniles.
Political turmoil is on the rise within the mullahs’ ranks,
parallel with rising protests and strikes throughout the
country. The mullahs are trying to bolster their
increasingly shaky rule with a rampant, systematic, and
highly organized suppression of Iranian citizens and
dissidents.
Since coming to power in 1979, the ayatollahs unique blend
of religious demagoguery with abundant barbarity has been
used to sow fear, confusion, and doubt in the minds of
ordinary people to contain their desire and movement for
democratic change. The main target of this campaign of
terror against dissidents has been Iran’s main opposition,
the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) whose members,
according to the State Department’s country report on human
rights, are the main target of political executions in Iran.
For many years, Tehran’s goal of eradicating this group has
extended beyond Iran’s borders. Europe became a roaming
ground for the ayatollahs’ hit squads to assassinate
political figures of the Iranian resistance. Tehran also
sought and gained an invaluable tool to silence its
opposition abroad, when it convinced western capitals,
including Washington, to blacklist the MEK as a “good will”
gesture toward Tehran.
Now Iraq has become the main staging ground for Tehran’s
campaign to deprive the members of the MEK residing in
Ashraf City, Iraq, of their rights to freedom, safety, and
security as guaranteed by International Humanitarian Law and
the Fourth Geneva Convention. In recent months, Tehran has
relentlessly sought the transfer of the protection of Ashraf
residents from the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq to the
Iraqi government. The next step is to then put tremendous
pressure on Iraq’s nascent and fragile government to turn
over the members of the main Iranian opposition to Tehran,
where they would be subject to torture and execution.
On August 28, Amnesty International issued a statement
regarding this humanitarian crisis. ''Amnesty International
has been monitoring the situation of members and supporters
of the PMOI in Camp Ashraf. Following the U.S.-led military
intervention in Iraq in 2003, about 3,400 members of the
PMOI were disarmed by the U.S.-led forces at Camp Ashraf.
Since that time PMOI members living in the Camp, which is
managed by the MNF, have been designated as ''protected
persons'' under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
which prevents extradition or forced repatriation to Iran as
long as the U.S.-led Multinational Force (MNF) is present in
Iraq.''
On August 14, in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) wrote that Iran ''is working to end
the U.S.-led protection of Ashraf and expose the MEK to
pro-Iranian forces bent on eliminating the MEK as credible
resistance force.'' Senator Bond urged the United States
''to retain the sole responsibility for their protection in
accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention until a
workable solution can be achieved.''
In 1988, Khomeini’s regime carried out a campaign of
slaughter, executing nearly 30,000 political prisoners, in
accordance with Khomeini’s infamous decree: "Those who are
in prisons throughout the country and remain committed to
their support for the [MEK], are waging war on God and are
condemned to execution.... Destroy the enemies of Islam
immediately." Twenty years later, the ayatollahs are at it
again. Prominent Members of Congress believe that the
international community must continue to condemn Tehran for
massive human rights violations and frustrate its campaign
to create a humanitarian crisis for the dissidents in Camp
Ashraf.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs
Analyst and the author of "The
Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear
Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
