Lives of hostages in Iran’s prisons are in your hands

After today executions in Evin, all other political prisons are prone to looming execution

During Iran’s latest mass demonstration on December 27th 2009 (the day of Ashura) in which scores of the protesters have been killed or injured, thousands of protestors and activists have been also arrested and tortured...

The massive arrests of journalists, political, social, and human rights activists along with numbers of students, women right activists and religious scholars led to a series of forced confessions. Based on these self incriminaring confession extract under extreme torture the authorities branded a large numbers of detainees as “Mohareb” a religious term literally means waging war against God which potentially carries death penalty.

These recurrences at times are reminiscent of 1981-88 mass executions in Iranian prison in which all executes were unscrupulously accused of “Moharebe” and as a result condemned to death and summarily executed by either firing squads or hangings.

Moreover, it has to be mentioned that these prisoners have been completely deprived of their rights; there is no information released by the state about their circumstances; they are not permitted to hire a lawyer of their choice; and they have been mostly tried behind in camera in kangaroo courts. In reality these prisoners are hostages held by state apparatus and their fates are tantamount to mockery of justice.

"Islamic republic of Iran" have repeatedly ignored international and domestic appeals to respect prisoner’s rights. Iranian authorities’ background in adhering human and civil rights of her citizens shows that the regime were never willing to respect international covenants regarding human rights and continues to systematically violating human and civil rights of Iranian people at large.

Today’s execution of two youngsters (Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani & Arash Rahmani-Pour) held in captivity months before June’s election, once again clearly substantiates the imminent danger the other political prisoners are also facing.

It is obvious that at this point, Iranian authorities are taking advantages of these executions and many other detainees which will follow to create a climate of fear, in order to prevent other protesters of pursuing their rights and demands.

A long list of another 20 recently condemned to death of the political prisoners makes the necessity of public attentiveness even more urgent.

However, the effort of Iranian people to obtain their minimum rights reiterated in collectively accepted “Universal declaration of human rights” plays an important role to help these prisoners who are hostages taking by one of the most inhumane, cruellest and savage states in the world. We as human rights activists call on all human rights organizations and activists around the world to raise public awareness regarding this matter and to work relentlessly to save the lives of these hostages.

• Committee for Defense of Political Prisoners in Iran (CDPPI)
• Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR)
• Iranian Human Rights Activist Groups in EU and North America (IHRAC)