Mass executions in Iran under Investigation

Mass executions in Iran under Investigation

20,000 political prisoners shot & hanged in 1980s

Iran Tribunal final sessions in The Hague this week

London - 23 October 2012

The independent tribunal on Iran’s mass execution of an estimated 20,000 political prisoners in the 1980s concludes with its final sessions later this week in The Hague.

The charges against Iran include crimes against humanity.
http://www.irantribunal.com/Eng/EnHome.html

At least 4,500 people, many of them teenagers, were executed in 1988 alone, according to Amnesty International.
http://bit.ly/i20UT

“The Iran Tribunal, inaugurated in 2007, comprises leading judges and lawyers from around the world, including former prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and at the special tribunals on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia,” reports Peter Tatchell, Director of the London-based human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation.

“British legal experts on the tribunal's legal steering committee include Prof John Cooper QC and Sir Geoffrey Nice, Gresham professor of law and a former prosecutor at the ICC.

“Past attempts to get UN human rights bodies to investigate the killings were blocked by Iran’s allies.

“Most of those executed were democrats, secularists, liberals, students and left-wingers. They were shot or hanged from cranes, usually after prolonged torture and without trial. Some of the women were raped before their execution. The victims were buried in mass graves. Many of the bodies have never been recovered,” said Mr Tatchell.

A member of the Iran Tribunal, Professor Payam Akhavan, observed:

"It (the tribunal) is a unique opportunity for the Iranian people to hold those in power accountable for past injustices to build a better future based on the rule of law.

"Instead of being punished, the perpetrators of these heinous crimes have been promoted to senior positions in government; members of the Death Commission sit on the Iranian Supreme Court, in its parliaments and in its Cabinets....without accountability for past crimes, it will be difficult to build a culture of human rights in Iran and to move beyond the present culture of impunity," he said.

James Howarth, a researcher at the Peter Tatchell Foundation, noted:

“Unlike the massacres in apartheid South Africa, Darfur, Srebrenica and General Pinochet's Chile, there has never been any international outrage at the mass killings in Iran. The victims and their loved ones have never had any opportunity for justice and legal redress.

“Repression continues in Iran today, with frequent unfair trials, torture, forced confessions, and the incarceration and execution of political prisoners.

“The Iranian regime stands accused of persecuting political and ethnic dissidents, Sunni Muslims and other religious minorities, trade unionists, students, journalists, lawyers, women’s rights activists and LGBT people,” he said.

The final sessions of the Iran Tribunal take place from 25-27 October in The Hague.

The findings of the Iran Tribunal’s June 2012 hearings are published here:
http://www.irantribunal.com/Eng/PDF/Commission%20Report-p.pdf

Background news story: http://bit.ly/QyeArg

For further information:
Web: www.PeterTatchellFoundation.org

Donate | follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook

ENDS

© Scoop Media