Iran rejects UN human rights report on executions

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected as “downright lie” a recent report prepared by the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and Christof Heyns, the UN rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The report on the alleged unreported executions in Iran or the execution of political prisoners is a downright lie, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Sunday, stressing that such untrue claims run counter to the professional responsibilities of Shaheed and Heyns.

Her comments came after the two UN staffers in a May 8 report condemned what they called a sharp increase in executions in recent weeks in Iran, alleging that many executions have gone unreported by official sources, and the names of prisoners have not been published.

Maldivian Shaheed and South African Heyns have also alleged that 98 prisoners “are reported to have been executed” in Iran between April 9 and 26, including at least six political prisoners and seven women.

In reaction, Afkham underscored that the allegation of a rise in the death penalty and “reliance on the estimated figures without any source or sources that are not authentic” nullify such a report.

“It’s a great pity that the trend of the (UN) special rapporteur’s (Shaheed’s) activities suggest that he does not seek credible evidence, and despite the reports and documents issued by Iran, such claims are continuously repeated with quite political purposes,” she noted.

The spokeswoman explained that Iran’s law hands out capital punishment only for “the most serious crimes, including narcotics trafficking”.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran calls on the special rapporteur not to include traffickers, murderers and those who have committed terrorist crimes in the list of the political prisoners,” she pointed out.