The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission issued the following statement today:

28 January 2013 – A group of United Nations independent experts urgedIran to halt the execution of five activists belonging to the Ahwazi Arab minority, who were sentenced to death on charges of corruption, propaganda and “enmity against God.”

Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka, Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Shabain Amouri and Hadi Rashidi, all founding members of Al-Hiwar, a scientific and cultural institute, were arrested in their homes in Ahwaz in 2011, ahead of the sixth anniversary of widespread protests by the Ahwazi community. Their sentences were recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for individuals to be imprisoned and condemned to death for exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association, opinion and expression, and affiliation to minority groups and to cultural institutions,” said the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed.

“Under international law, the death penalty can only be employed when very strict conditions are met, for example only in respect of the most serious crimes and only after a trial and appeal proceedings that scrupulously respect all the principles of due process,” noted the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, expressing serious concerns about the way these trials were conducted.

The Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, expressed grave concern about the allegations that the activists were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention as well as having been forced to sign confessions.

“This is not only in breach of Iran’s international obligations under the international covenant, which imposes an outright prohibition on torture, it is also in breach of Iran’s Constitution that explicitly forbids the use of all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confessions or acquiring information,” Mr. Méndez said.

For his part, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, reminded the Iranian authorities of their international obligations, recalling that “Iran is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the rights to free expression, free association and peaceful assembly.”

The UN independent expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák, said she was concerned by the number of cases of individuals belonging to minorities being sentenced for their activities related to their rights.

“I urge the Government of Iran to halt these executions and to review the decisions of the courts to ensure that all human rights, including minority rights, are fully upheld and respected in practice,” she added.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44012&;Cr=Iran&Cr1#.UQaxrL8gGc1

دعاء مفوض ملف حقوق الانسان في الخارجية الالمانية ماركوس لونينغ في بيان له في يوم يوم الخميس الموافق ل 24 يناير 2013 ايران بالغاء حكم الاعدام بحق خمسة مواطنين أحوازيين

و جاء في البيان:

تقلقني احكام الاعدام بحق النشطاء الأحوازيين الخمسة التي جاءت في محاكمات غير شفافة و في ظروف غامضة و تم تأييدها من قبل المحكمة العليا و التي تتاقض هذه الاحكام المشكوك فيها و الغير مقبولة مع القوانين ايرانية و المبادئ والاحكام الدولية والتي تعتبر انتهاكأ صارخأ للقوانين الانسانية.

و اضاف البيان ان هؤلاء المواطنين كانوا يناضلون بالطرق السلمية للحصول على حقوقهم الثقافية و السياسية و ان رفع اي دعوى عليهم امرأ غير مقبول على الاطلاق.

و يضيف ماركوس لونينغ في بيانه هذا: من الواجب علي الحكومة الايرانية حماية مواطنيها و ليس اضطهادهم. واطالب الحكومة الايرانيه برفع الاحكام و اطلاق صراح المتهمين بسرعة. و يجب علي الحكومة الايرانية ان تحترم الاقليات القومية والدينية. 

و جاء في بيان المفوض الماني ماركوس لونينغ هذا:

ان الشعب العربي الأحوازي يعاني من سياسات التمييز العنصري و محو الهوية و التطهير العرقي في التعليم و المسكن الملائم و فرص العمل المناسبة من قبل السلطات الايرانية و يمارس ايضأ التمييز العنصري ضدهم في المجالات السياسية و الثقافية و يصدر عليهم بسبب هذا النشاط (الثقافي و السياسي)احكام الاعدام و السجن الطويل الامد.و يشكل العرب الذين يتواجدون في جنوب غرب ايران الاغلبية و اعتنق عدد كبير منهم المذهب السني.

محمد علي العموري، سيد جابر البوشوكة ،سيد مختار البوشوكة(شقيق سيد جابر)، هاشم شعباني العموري و هادي رشيدي هؤلاء جميعا اعضاء في المعهد الثقافي في مدينة الخلفية وتم اعتقالهم في ابريل عام 2011 في ذكرى انتافضة نيسان 2005 من قبل قوات امن الايرانية.

في شهر يوليو 2012 قد حكمت محكمة الثورة في الأحواز عليهم بالاعدام و ذلك بتهمة محاربة الله و مفسدين في الارض و التأمر ضد الامن ايراني و نشر دعاية مناهضة للنظام و من ثم تم تأييد الحكم في المحكمة العليا الايرانية عليهم حتى يتم تنفيذه من قبل سلطات السجن.و في 18 يناير 2013 تم ابلاغ عوائل المواطنين الأحوازيين الخمسة من قبل سلطات السجن بأن تم نقل ابنائهم من سجن قارون(كارون) الواقع في مدينة الأحواز العاصمة الى مكان مجهول.

ترجمة البيان

اللجنة الاعلامية للمنظمة الأحوازية لحقوق الانسان

Whereabouts of Five Condemned Men Unknown

(London) – Iran’s judiciary should quash death sentences against five members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority and immediately cancel their execution, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The sentences were handed down by a revolutionary court and upheld by the country’s Supreme Court on January 9, 2013.

The five men – Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his brother Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri, and Hadi Rashidi (or Rashedi) – are all activists in Iran’s Arab-majority Khuzestan province, in southwest Iran. A branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced them to death on terrorism-related charges following an unfair trial in July 2012. On January 18, authorities informed families gathered outside Karoun Prison in the south-western city of Ahvaz that the five men had been transferred out of the prison. Their whereabouts are unknown.

“The reported transfer of these men to an unknown place is an extremely worrying development,” said Ann Harrison, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International. “In Iran, death row prisoners are generally moved to solitary confinement before their death sentences are carried out, and we fear that the authorities may be planning to execute them imminently.”

Security forces arrested all five men at their homes in early 2011 in advance of the sixth anniversary of widespread protests by Ahwazi Arabs in April 2005. Authorities arrested Mohammad Ali Amouri 20 days after Iraqi authorities had forcibly returned him to Iran, from which he had fled in December 2007. They did not allow him family visits for the first nine months. The human rights groups have received information that Amouri was subjected to physical and psychological torture during this time.

Rashidi was hospitalized after his arrest, possibly as a result of torture or other ill-treatment. Sources have told the groups that he is in poor health.

Family members outside the country have said that Sayed Jaber Alboshoka’s jaw and teeth were broken during his detention and that Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka has experienced depression and memory loss as a result of torture or other ill-treatment.

In May 2012, Al Arabiya reported that Intelligence Ministry agents forced Sha’bani to confess to crimes he had not committed by pouring boiling water on him.

A branch of the Revolutionary Court convicted the men in July 2012 on vaguely worded charges related to national security that did not amount to internationally recognizable criminal offenses. These included “gathering and colluding against state security,” “spreading propaganda against the system,” “enmity against God,” or moharebeh; and “corruption on earth,” or ifsad fil-arz. The death penalty is a possible punishment for the latter two. Under articles 186 and 190-91 of Iran’s Penal Code, anyone found responsible for taking up arms against the state, or belonging to an organization taking up arms against the government, may be considered guilty of “enmity against God” and risks being sentenced to death. The specific acts of which the men were accused are not known.

The five men are founding members of Al-Hiwar (“Dialogue” in Arabic), a scientific and cultural institute registered during the administration of Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami, who served from1997 to 2005. Al-Hiwar organizes seminars, educational and art classes, and poetry recitals that have taken place in the town of Ramshir (known in Arabic as Khalafiye). Authorities banned al-Hiwar in May 2005, and many of its members have since been arrested.

Iranian Ahwazi Arab rights groups maintain that authorities extracted “confessions” from the five men while subjecting them to torture or mistreatment and denying them access to a lawyer and their families for the first nine months of their detentionat a local Intelligence Ministry facility. The men later denied the charges against them in court, sources reported.

Article 38 of the Iranian Constitution prohibits all forms of torture “for the purpose of obtaining confessions.” The Penal Code also provides for the punishment of officials who torture citizens to obtain confessions. Despite these legal and constitutional guarantees regarding confessions under duress, “confessions” are sometimes broadcast on television even before a trial has concluded and are generally accepted as evidence in Iranian courts. Such broadcasts violate Iran’s fair trial obligations under article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a state party.

Iranian authorities have executed dozens of people since the disputed 2009 presidential election, many of them from ethnic minorities, for moharebeh because of their alleged ties to armed or terrorist groups. Since May 2011, authorities have executed at least 11 Iranian Ahwazi Arab men and a 16-year-old boy for alleged links to groups involved in attacking security forces.

Rights activists maintain that at least another six Iranian Ahwazi Arabs have been tortured to death in the custody of security and intelligence forces in connection with anti-government demonstrations that swept across Khuzestan province on the 2011 and 2012 anniversaries of the 2005 unrest. According to Kurdish rights activists, more than 20 members of Iran’s Kurdish minority are on death row after conviction for political offenses. They include Zaniar and Loghman Moradi, who are at imminent risk of execution.

In 2012 Iran remained one of the world’s foremost executioners, with more than 500 prisoners hanged either in prisons or in public. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch oppose capital punishment in all circumstances because of its irreversible, cruel, and inhumane nature.

“Iranian authorities should end the suffering of the five men’s families by immediately informing them of their whereabouts and allowing them family visits and access to their lawyers,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “On no account should they be executed.”

Background

Jaber Alboshoka, 28, is a computer scientist who had been performing his national service as a private in the army; Mokhtar Alboshoka, 28, worked at a stone mining company; Rashidi, 26, holds a masters degree in applied chemistry and was a chemistry teacher; Sha’bani, 39, was an Arabic literature teacher and a student working toward a master’s degree in political science at Ahwaz University; and Amouri, 34, was a fisheries engineer and school teacher.

The Iranian government alleges that the five men are part of an armed Arab terrorist group responsible for shooting at several government employees. In December 2011 a government-run TV station broadcast televised “confessions” of several of the men, including Rashidi and Sha’bani, in which they claimed responsibility for armed attacks against government officials.

Human rights groups have previously expressed concern regarding the condition of Rashidi, Sha’bani, and other Iranian Ahwazi Arab activists detained by security and intelligence forces, and worry about their fate in light of reports of the execution of Heidarian and three other Ahwazi Arab men in June for their alleged role in the killing of a police officer. On June 9, officials in Ahvaz’s Karoun prison transferred Taha, Abbas, and Abdul-Rahman Heidarian, all brothers, as well as another man, to an unknown location. About a week later authorities informed the men’s families that they had been executed.

The December 2011 program that aired the confessions of Rashidi and Sha’bani also showed Taha Heidarian “confessing” to involvement in the killing of a law enforcement official in April 2011 amid widespread protests in Khuzestan.

Several days after reports surfaced regarding the executions, Iranian Ahwazi Arab rights groups circulated a video purporting to show the men, following their arrest by security forces, reading a plea to save their lives addressed to Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran. It has not been possible to verify the authenticity of the video.

UN human rights mechanisms have condemned the executions of the four men.

Verpestete Luft, schmutzige Straßen und ekliger Gestank - manche Städte sollten Sie als Urlauber lieber meiden, um Ihre Gesundheit nicht aufs Spiel zu setzen. "Heute.at" präsentiert einige der dreckigsten Orte der Welt. Länder wie China oder Iran sind echte Umweltsünder. In vielen Städten verdeckt dichter Smog die Sicht, auch das Wasser wird häufig in Mitleidenschaft gezogen. Die Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit sind enorm - für die Lungen sind solche Bedingungen schlichtweg Gift. Die Stadt mit der miesesten Luftqualität ist Ahwaz im Iran. 379 Mikrogramm Partikel pro Kubikmeter markieren den traurigen Spitzenwert. Platz zwei der "schwarzen Liste" geht an Ulan Bator (Mongolei) mit 279 Mikrogramm. Das ebenfalls nicht gerade als saubere bekannte Peking kommt da mit 121 Mikrogramm noch gut weg. Doch auch in der chinesischen Metropole wurden an einem schlechten Tag schon einmal 700 Mikrogramm gemessen. Schuld an der schlechten Qualität hat vor allem die Industrie, aber auch starker Verkehr und die Abgase alter, nicht-umweltfreundlicher Autos. Oft ist auch das Wasser vergiftet. Andere Städte leiden unter großen Müllmengen und nicht intakten Abwassersystemen wie etwa das indische Bombay. Manche Orte wie Port-au-Prince auf Haiti erholen sich nach Naturkatastrophen nur schwer von sich rasant ausbreitenden Seuchen.

Heute.at

Anlässlich der Meldungen über die drohende Hinrichtung von fünf Angehörigen der arabischen Ahwazi-Minderheit in Iran erklärte der Menschenrechtsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung im Auswärtigen Amt, Markus Löning, heute (24.01.2013):

Hintergrund:

Die arabische Ahwazi-Minderheit in Iran leidet unter Marginalisierung und Diskriminierung hinsichtlich Bildung, Arbeit, angemessener Unterkünfte, politischer Teilhabe und kultureller Rechte. Regelmäßig werden Angehörige der Ahwazi-Araber infolge ihres Engagements für kulturelle Rechte und politische Teilhabe von den iranischen Justizbehörden zum Tode oder zu langjährigen Haftstrafen verurteilt. Die Ahwazi-Araber leben größtenteils im Südwesten Irans und sind hauptsächlich schiitische Muslime, wovon jedoch ein Teil zur sunnitischen Konfession übergetreten ist.

Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka, Saced Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri und Hadi Rashidi, alle Mitglieder des arabischen Kulturinstituts in Ramshir, waren 2011 im Vorfeld des Jahrestages der Proteste der Ahwazi-Araber im April 2005 von den iranischen Sicherheitsbehörden verhaftet worden. Im Juli 2012 wurden sie vom Revolutionsgerichts in Ahwaz der Straftatbestände "Feindschaft zu Gott und Verdorbenheit auf Erden", "Verabredung zu einer Straftat gegen die nationale Sicherheit" und "Verbreitung von Propaganda gegen das System" für schuldig befunden und zum Tode verurteilt. Nachdem der Oberste Gerichtshof die Todesurteile bestätigt hatte, wurden sie an die Vollstreckungsbehörde übersandt, so dass die Todesurteile nun jederzeit vollstreckt werden können. Am 18. Januar wurden die Angehörigen der fünf Männer von den Gefängnisbehörden informiert, dass die Verurteilten aus dem Karoun-Gefängnis an einen unbekannten Ort verbracht worden seien.

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2013/130124-MRHH_Iran.html

Reports of the impending execution of five members of the Arab Ahwazi minority in Iran prompted Federal Government Human Rights Commissioner Markus Löning to issue the following statement today (24 January 2013):

Background:

The Arab Ahwazi minority in Iran are subject to marginalization and discrimination with respect to education, jobs, suitable accommodation, political participation and cultural rights. Ahwazi Arabs are regularly given death sentences or long prison terms by Iran’s judicial authorities for standing up for cultural rights and political participation. Most of the Ahwazi Arabs live in south western Iran. They are on the whole Shiite Muslims, although some have become Sunnis.

Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka, Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha’bani Amouri and Hadi Rashidi, all members of an Arab cultural institute in Ramshir, were arrested in 2011 by Iranian security forces in advance of the anniversary of the 2005 Ahwazi Arab protests. In July 2012, the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz found them guilty of the crimes of “enmity against God and corruption on earth”, “conspiring to commit a crime against national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system”. They were sentenced to death. After the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences, they were handed over to the authority responsible for enforcement, so that the death sentences may now be carried out at any time. On 18 January, relatives of the five men were informed by prison authorities that the men had been transferred from Karoun Prison to an unknown location.

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2013/130124-MRHH_Iran.html?nn=479796

مارکوس لونینگ، مسئول حقوق‌بشر وزارت امورخارجه آلمان، روز پنجشنبه (۵ بهمن/۲۴ ژانویه) با انتشار بیانیه‌ای خواستار لغو فوری حکم اعدام ۵ شهروند عرب ایرانی در اهواز شد.

شورای حقوق بشر سازمان ملل، اعدام علی نادری در زندان رجایی‌شهر کرج را تکان‌دهنده و مخالف میثاق‌ جهانی حقوق کودک و نوجوان خوانده است. نادری هنگام ارتکاب قتل ۱۷ سال و زمان اعدام ۲۱ سال داشت.

22 January 2013 – The United Nations human rights office today strongly condemned the execution of Ali Naderi, a 21-year-old who was sentenced to death for a crime he allegedly committed when he was 17 even though Iran is party to agreements that ban the death sentence against persons less than 18 years of age.

“We are deeply dismayed to hear about the reported execution in Iran of a juvenile offender on Wednesday 16 January 2013,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Cécile Pouilly, told reporters in Geneva.

Mr. Naderi was executed for his alleged role in the murder of a woman when he was 17 years old, according to OHCHR. It was the first juvenile execution since September 2011.

“International human rights instruments – particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – to both of which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party, impose an absolute ban on the death sentence against persons below the age of 18 at the time when the offence was committed,” Ms. Pouilly said. “We urge the Government of Iran to end the execution of juvenile offenders once and for all.”

OHCHR is also concerned about five other individuals – Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka, Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Shabain Amouri and Hadi Rashidi – whose death sentences were recently upheld by the Supreme Court and appear to be at risk of imminent execution.

“There are serious concerns about the fairness of their trials and allegations that they were subjected to torture,” Ms. Pouilly said. “We urge the Government to restrict the use of the death penalty, to reduce the number of offences for which it may be imposed and to respect international standards guaranteeing due process and the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty.”

According to OHCHR, more than 400 people were executed in Iran last year, the majority of whom were charged with drug-related offences that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” to which the death penalty may be applied under international human rights law.

The UN agency also condemned the rise in public executions in Iran, stating they add to the already cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty and have a dehumanizing effect on the victim and those who witness the execution. In 2012, 55 public executions were carried out. Last Sunday, two individuals were hung in a park in Tehran, the capital.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43980&;Cr=iran&Cr1#.UQAuaSeABHt