Iranian regime’s reality check on the World Day against Death Penalty
By Reza ShafieeSpecial to Al Arabiya EnglishTuesday, 10 October 2017October 10th, World Day against Death Penalty is here. For citizens of countries with governments fixated with executing the cruel and inhuman punishment it is a reminder that despite world’s grant entrance into the 21st century, there is still a long way to go before leaving this medieval punishment behind for good.
Iran is a prime example of such a mentality. By scratching the surface and getting a little deeper, for Iran’s rulers, it is not just a mere form of punishment. It is an instrument of spreading fear among the citizens. Even China, with a population 17 times larger than Iran, and a world’s leading advocate of death penalty, there is hardly any case of public hanging or juvenile execution.
In the case of mullahs in Tehran, execution is a means to an end. It is only used to keep in check the fed up citizens, it is a reminder that dissidence will have dire consequences. The regime has tried throughout its life to sugarcoat and sell it to the rest of the world as a noble contribution in fight against drug smugglers.
Under Rouhani’s watch, close to 4,000 executions have been recorded. (Reuters)
Discouraging drug smuggling
Iranian regime claims that death penalty is largely carried out to discourage drug smuggling. Not to mentions that the main drug trafficking in Iran are through ports controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran. By some estimate, IRGC pockets billions of dollars in windfalls from the lucrative business.
Many of the regime’s officials openly admit that hanging drug offenders have not been an effective technique in stopping any future cases and in fact it has backfired. The Iranian regime began mass executions in the very first two years after its inception when in 1981 and 1982 executed Iranian dissidents by thousands. The following decade by many who survived it was rightfully called, the “Dark Era.”
The highlight of the first decade into the regime’s rule was of course the bloody summer of 1988 when more than 30,000 political prisoners were tried in Kangaroo courts and immediately send to gallows. That few months are best described by Khomeini’s then successor, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.
Discouraging drug smuggling
Iranian regime claims that death penalty is largely carried out to discourage drug smuggling. Not to mentions that the main drug trafficking in Iran are through ports controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran. By some estimate, IRGC pockets billions of dollars in windfalls from the lucrative business.
Many of the regime’s officials openly admit that hanging drug offenders have not been an effective technique in stopping any future cases and in fact it has backfired. The Iranian regime began mass executions in the very first two years after its inception when in 1981 and 1982 executed Iranian dissidents by thousands. The following decade by many who survived it was rightfully called, the “Dark Era.”
The highlight of the first decade into the regime’s rule was of course the bloody summer of 1988 when more than 30,000 political prisoners were tried in Kangaroo courts and immediately send to gallows. That few months are best described by Khomeini’s then successor, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.
“Death Commission”
UN Special Rapporteur
Widespread executions
Last Update: Tuesday, 10 October 2017 KSA 10:37 - GMT 07:37
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