U.N. investigator: “Iran Executed 670 in 2011”

U.N. investigator: “Iran Executed 670 in 2011”

Iran executed at least 670 people last year, a United Nations investigator said on Monday. Based on the report, most of those executed had allegedly committed drug crimes that do not merit capital punishment under international law,

Ahmed Shaheed, the investigator and former Maldives foreign minister, also reported a wide range of violations by Iran of U.N. human rights accords, from abuse of minorities to persecution of homosexuals and labor unions.

Shaheed was delivering his first report to the U.N.'s 47-nation Human Rights Council on the rights situation in the country since being appointed last year, whose office and mandate were established last year by a narrow vote in the council. The report was dismissed by Iran as a "compilation of baseless allegations".

"It is with great concern that I report the significant increase in the rate of executions in Iran from 200 in mid-September 2011 to over 600 executions by the end of the year," Shaheed told the council.

Figures in his detailed report showed that by December 31, 421 executions had been officially announced and 249 secret ones had been reported to him by sources inside and outside the country.

Iran has refused to allow him into the country. In the council on Monday it described him as "incompetent".

Shaheed, a long-time diplomat and founder of a human rights institute in the Maldives, said he had received videotaped testimony from witnesses to torture by security police and from relatives of young people who had been held in jail.

He told a news conference that even among those officially executed for drug offences there were strong indications that many had originally been arrested for resisting the regime or similar offences and had the narcotics charges added later.

Posted by James Fried on Tuesday March 13 2012, 5:07 AM EST. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0