Death penalty imposed particularly against members of suppressed ethnic groups and religious communities

The number of executions has increased very sharply before the presidential elections on 12th June according to information received by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV). The human right organisation stated on Tuesday that alone in May 2009 52 death sentences were carried out. Last year according to information received from the Iranian opposition 240 people were executed. "The victims are usually members of non-Persian ethnic groups or non-Shiite religious communities”, said the GfbV near-east consultant, Kamal Sido. Death sentences are often passed by special courts at high speed, in which the defendants hardly have an opportunity to defend themselves. It is only seldom that lawyers are permitted to attend the hearings. The GfbV is calli ng for the abolition of the death penalty.

As an example of such a s, in which the sentence has been practically decided right from the outset, Sido pointed to the execution of three Beluchi on 30th May in Sahedan in the province of Sistan-Beluchistan in the south-east of Iran. They were accused of being involved in the bombing of a Shiite mosque two days before. In the attack 20 people were killed and more than 120 injured.

The arbitrary sentences against the three Beluchi makes it clear that Iranian justice is being misused to underline the absolute claim to power of the Shiite clerics, criticised the human rights expert. The Beluchi, who number about 2.4 million, suffer from discrimination. Most of them profess Shiite Islam. Their language, which is related to Persian, is not recognized. The Beluchi are refused access to government posts and t heir settlements are systematically neglected by the government, so the rate of unemployment is high.

In Iran, a country of many peoples, beside a large number of Shiite Persians ther live also Azens, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchi, Turkmens and other smaller ethnic groups and non-Islamic religious communities like the Christian Assyrians and Armenians, and Baha’i, Zoroastrians and Jews. The non-Persian nationalities make up much more than half the 75 million citizens of Iran.

However they are not recognized as independent peoples with their own languages, cultures and history. They all suffer from suppression and discrimination.

On 20th June the GfbV and the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation are holding a conference FÜR DIE FREIHEIT (For Freedom) in Frankfurt am Main on the situation of the discriminated ethnic and religious communities in Iran with many representatives of these ethnic groups and religious communities.