Die International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) macht in einer Pressemitteilung zusammen mit der Iranian League for Defence of Human Rights (LDDHI) auf die dramatische Zunahme von Hinrichtungen und Todesstrafen im Iran aufmerksam.
On 5th January, the executions toll reached almost 70 in the span of one month alone. According to various official and semi-official sources, these included a public hanging at the centre of capital Tehran on 5th January 2011, 8 hangings on 3rd January and 16 ‘in the course of the preceding days in Ahvaz.’ Most of those executed were charged with drug trafficking, but at least 18 reportedly faced the death penalty for political reasons facing the vague charges of moharebeh [fighting God] and ‘corruption on earth.’
Die Organisationen heben unter anderem die Fälle reformierter Christen im Iran hervor:
At least one Christian pastor, Yousef Nadarkhani, has been sentenced to death in Rasht on charges of apostasy at the end of September. Another imprisoned pastor, Behrouz Sadeq Khanjani, is likely to receive a similar sentence in Shiraz. The increasing dangers and threats against newly converted Christians in Iran came to light on 4th January when the governor-general of Tehran Province, Morteza Tamaddon, described the ‘Evangelical proselytising Christians as a deviate and corrupt tendency’ and reported that ‘their leaders had been arrested in the Tehran province and more will be arrested in future.’ Unconfirmed reports indicated that up to 60 Christians had been detained on Christmas Eve, including Priest Leonard Keshishian in Isfahan.