Iran Is About to Execute Another 100 Prisoners for Drug Offenses
By Samuel Oakford
March 4, 2016
In the latest salvo of Iran's routine slaughter of narcotics offenders, some 100 prisoners jailed together for drug crimes in Iran have been informed of their impending execution.
Mahmood Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, revealed on Friday that sources inside and outside Ghezel Hessar prison, including a prosecutor attached to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court, confirmed that the inmates were told that the country's Supreme Court had upheld their sentences, and that they should prepare to be put to death.
The prospect of this mass execution for drug crimes comes just months after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) inked a new $20 million deal with Iran to assist in its counter-narcotic efforts. Advocates against the excesses of the drug war have pilloried the UN for its dealings with Iran, which kills hundreds of people every year, including foreign nationals, over drug-related charges. Iran Human Rights estimates that more than 1,800 people were executed for drug crimes in Iran between 2010 and 2014, most without due process or access to proper legal representation.
Moghaddam said that last year the number of executions for such crimes increased considerably, surpassing 600. He estimates that more than half of government executions, and in recent years as much as 70 percent, involve some connection to drugs. On a per capita basis, Iran executes more people than any other country in the world.
This February, Iranian authorities halted such killings in the weeks surrounding parliamentary elections — a common practice, and one that suggests the arbitrary ordering of executions is largely political and not aimed at actually curtailing drug trafficking or use in Iran. That perception is reinforced by Iran's progressive but apparently contradictory practice of offering some drug users access to harm-reduction methods.
cont https://news.vice.com/article/iran-is-about-to-execute-another-100-prisoners-for-drug-offenses
By Samuel Oakford
March 4, 2016
In the latest salvo of Iran's routine slaughter of narcotics offenders, some 100 prisoners jailed together for drug crimes in Iran have been informed of their impending execution.
Mahmood Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, revealed on Friday that sources inside and outside Ghezel Hessar prison, including a prosecutor attached to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court, confirmed that the inmates were told that the country's Supreme Court had upheld their sentences, and that they should prepare to be put to death.
The prospect of this mass execution for drug crimes comes just months after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) inked a new $20 million deal with Iran to assist in its counter-narcotic efforts. Advocates against the excesses of the drug war have pilloried the UN for its dealings with Iran, which kills hundreds of people every year, including foreign nationals, over drug-related charges. Iran Human Rights estimates that more than 1,800 people were executed for drug crimes in Iran between 2010 and 2014, most without due process or access to proper legal representation.
Moghaddam said that last year the number of executions for such crimes increased considerably, surpassing 600. He estimates that more than half of government executions, and in recent years as much as 70 percent, involve some connection to drugs. On a per capita basis, Iran executes more people than any other country in the world.
This February, Iranian authorities halted such killings in the weeks surrounding parliamentary elections — a common practice, and one that suggests the arbitrary ordering of executions is largely political and not aimed at actually curtailing drug trafficking or use in Iran. That perception is reinforced by Iran's progressive but apparently contradictory practice of offering some drug users access to harm-reduction methods.
cont https://news.vice.com/article/iran-is-about-to-execute-another-100-prisoners-for-drug-offenses
