Iran hangs 18 prisoners, including at least one woman, in just two days

 Iran hanged 18 prisoners, this past weekend; with 16 executions on Sunday alone.

Eleven prisoners were hanged in Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, on Sunday, but only two have been identified; Saeed Saberi and Moslem Bahrami. The charges have not been specified but at least one member of this group was a woman.

Two men were hanged on Sunday, in a public square in the city’s Mehshahr District, according to the state-run Tasnim news agency. They have only been identified by their initials Q. J. and M. R.

Still on Sunday, another three men were hanged in prison in Birjand, eastern Iran. Mansour Zafarani, Yousef Barahoui, and Qassem Delshad were accused of drugs-related charges.

On Saturday, two unidentified prisoners aged 40 and 49, were hanged in Lakan Prison in Rasht, northern Iran, according to the state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

Iran hangs 18 prisoners

British MPs urge EU’s Mogherini to cancel Iran visit amid execution spree

British MPs urge EU’s Mogherini to cancel Iran visit amid execution spree

NCRI - The following is the text of a press release by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom calling on European Union foreign policy chief, Ms. Federica Mogherini, to cancel her upcoming visit to Tehran in light of the appalling human rights record of the mullahs' regime:

Press Release: British MPs urge EU Foreign policy chief to cancel Iran visit amid execution spree

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF) regrets the decision by EU Foreign policy chief, Ms Federica Mogherini, to visit Iran on April 16, 2016.

The planned visit to Iran by Europe’s most senior official on foreign affairs and similar travel by other European state officials is highly inappropriate considering the regime's domestic repression and destructive policies abroad.

During the “moderate” administration of Hassan Rouhani, nearly 1000 people were executed in Iran last year alone, including juveniles in violation of international law. At least 47 journalists and social media activists were reportedly detained in the country as of January 2016, according to reports by the UN Special rapporteur for Iran and Amnesty international.

This is in addition to Tehran's destabilising actions and support for terrorist groups in the region as well as pressing ahead with its missile programme in clear defiance of the international community and regional concerns.

The EU should not allow itself to be deceived by Rouhani's charm offensive and his unfulfilled promises of “moderation” and instead pay close attention to the bellicose rhetoric coming out of Tehran. The Iranian Supreme Leader, who holds the ultimate power in the country, declared recently that “missiles, not talks, are key to the regime's future” emphasising that “Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors.”

IRAN: Richard Ashworth MEP: Over 1000 executions in Iran in 2015

richard-ashworth

NCRI - Richard Ashworth, a Member of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom, has reiterated that the Iranian regime’s president Hassan Rouhani is not a ‘moderate’ as he claims to be.

Mr. Ashworth, who is a strong supporter of freedom and democracy in Iran, pointed to over 1000 executions carried out in Iran in 2015 under Rouhani’s watch.

Iran - Patrick J. Kennedy: The illusion of Iranian moderation

patrick-kennedy

Former US Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy has written in the Thursday edition of the Providence Journal about how Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is not at all “moderate”, despite Western perception, and that such a gap between perception and reality has existed for “more than three decades.”

“Countless instances since the 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani—including most recently the state-sanctioned torching of the Saudi embassy in Tehran — should have dispelled the notion that we are dealing with a moderate reformist at the helm of the Islamic Republic,” Mr Kennedy writes. “Sectarian conflict is on the rise with Iran backing Syria’s Assad, Hezbollah, an anti-American insurgency in Yemen and radical Shia factions in Iraq.”

The former Congressman noted how these developments “have proven the accuracy of analyses from sources like the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which insisted from the start that moderation was not a realistic prospect under the existing theocratic regime.”

“Indeed, the illusion of a “moderate” Iranian president has persisted for more than three decades, despite its nonexistence in reality. Rouhani is only the latest to artfully exploit this fantasy and play into a naïve, aspirational worldview among many in the West about Tehran's behavior and intentions.”

Interview with Tahar Boumedra: Iran regime is not reformable

Dr. Boumedra appealed

The former head of the United Nations human rights office in Iraq, Dr. TaharBoumedra, on Wednesday rejected claims that the Iranian regime’s president Hassan Rouhani is a moderate and said that Iran’s fundamentalist regime is “not reformable.”

In an interview with ncr-iran.org, Dr. Boumedra appealed to European leaders to focus on the appalling human rights situation in Iran in light of Rouhani’s planned trip to France and other European countries at the end of January.

“Moderation under the current Iranian constitution is meaningless because it is a constitution program that adopts violations of human rights, including torture, and the ‘export of the revolution’ as a means of governance in Iran,” Dr. Boumedra said.

“It is impossible to qualify a member of the current Iranian government as a moderate,” added Dr. Boumedra, who last September published a 50-page report on the human rights situation in Iran in 2015.

He pointed out that Rouhani and all the members of his administration are “committed to a regime with a constitution that is based on Sharia [Law] as interpreted by a group of mullahs under the leadership of the Supreme Leader. This interpretation is not the mainstream Shia or Sunni Islam. It is an interpretation that does not belong to this era.”

Ken Blackwell: Iran's Rouhani falsely depicted as a moderate

Washington, 24 Sep - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani tries to falsely depict himself as a "moderate" or a "reformer" worthy of the trust and engagement of the international community, first and foremost the US, and this charade has only been emboldened by the nuclear deal with which the Obama administration handed a range of unwarranted concessions to Tehran and failed to accomplish its goal of cutting off Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon ", wrote Ken Blackwell, former US ambassador to the UN human rights commission, in an op- ed in Town Hall.

Next Monday, on September 28 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly. That podium has hosted many bad characters who have used it to advocate their sinister policies. But Rouhani's presence stands out precisely because he blends in better than many of his predecessors.