RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE UK GOVERNMENT
Amnesty Internationashol is calling on the UK government to help end the crisis of systemic impunity,
and w support for women and girls in Iran by:
2. Ensuring the swift operationalization of the recently established UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) to investigate human rights violations in Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022, especially with respect to woman and girls. The UK should ensure that its mandate is sufficiently resourced and urge the Iranian authorities to fully cooperate with the FFM and allow unhindered access to the country. The UK should also support FFM in its mandate to collect, consolidate and preserve crucial evidence for future prosecutions by sharing information and witness testimony from those persons who may be within their jurisdiction.
3. Exercising extraterritorial jurisdiction, including universal jurisdiction, to conduct independent and effective investigations and prosecutions whenever anyone reasonably suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law or other serious human rights violations finds themselves within the jurisdiction of the UK. If there is sufficient admissible evidence, the relevant national authorities should issue arrest warrants and seek to prosecute all those suspected of criminal responsibility before national courts, in proceedings that meet international standards or extradite a suspect to a jurisdiction that will do so.
4. Undertaking diplomatic initiatives to monitor trials, particularly before Revolutionary Courts. The UK should urgently seek to ensure that high level observers are able to attend all ongoing trials where defendants are at risk of being sentenced to death in connection with the protests as well as those of human rights defenders and other prisoners of conscience.
5. Undertaking diplomatic initiatives to visit prisons: The UK should seek to visit prisons where human rights defenders and others are being arbitrarily detained for peacefully exercising their human rights, including in relation to their participation in protests.
For more updates on the human rights situation in Iran: Latest - Amnesty International
OVERVIEW
The Iranian authorities’ deadly repression of the ongoing popular uprising in Iran, which erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini on 16 September 2022, is the latest in the cycle of violent attacks waged by the authorities against people expressing their legitimate grievances since December 2017.
Amnesty International has consistently documented crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations committed by the Iranian authorities in the context of protests, including:
• unlawful killings following unwarranted use of lethal force,
• mass arbitrary arrests and detentions,
• enforced disappearances,
• torture and other ill-treatment,
• the sentencing of individuals to lengthy prison terms or death following grossly unfair trials
Whilst the landmark UN fact-finding mission marks a long-awaited turning point in tackling the systematic impunity in Iran, states must now ensure that the mandate is made operational and sufficiently resourced without delay.
DEATH PENALTY
The horrifying execution of young protesters, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard following expedited and grossly unfair sham trials, shows how authorities are acting on public threats to expedite capital proceedings and carry out executions in an attempt to instill fear in the public. Amnesty International fears that many others in Iran could face the death penalty in relation to the popular uprising, given the thousands of people arrested and indicted.
From publicly available materials and other sources, Amnesty has identified the names of 20 people at imminent risk of execution in connection with the protests. These individuals have been referred to trial on capital charges in connection with protests, amid disturbing calls by Iranian officials to rush proceedings and execute them in public. Amnesty International fears that many others are at risk of facing the death penalty, given the thousands of people arrested and number of indictments issued by the authorities.
• Eleven individuals sentenced to death: Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh; Mahan Sadrat (Sedarat) Madani; Manouchehr Mehman Navaz; Mohammad Boroughani; Mohammad Ghobadlou; Saman Seydi (Yasin); Hamid Ghare Hasanlou; Mohammad Mehdi Karami; Sayed Mohammad Hosseini; Hossein Mohammadi; and an unnamed individual in Alborz province.
• Three individuals who have undergone trials on capital charges and who are either at risk of being sentenced to death or may have already been sentenced to death, with no publicly available information on their status: Saeed Shirazi; Abolfazl Mehri Hossein Hajilou; and Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharegholou.
• Six individuals who may be awaiting or undergoing trial on charges carrying the death penalty: Akbar Ghafari; Toomaj Salehi; Ebarhim Rigi; Amir Nasr Azadani; Saleh Mirhashemi; and Saeed Yaghoubi.
In some instances, the process of understanding which individuals have been sentenced to death is hindered by the Iranian authorities’ lack of transparency and their reprisals against relatives and lawyers of those detained, which impede them from speaking out against violations and sharing information publicly. Further details can be found in Amnesty International’s most recent research report.
Amnesty International is gravely concerned about the fairness of proceedings in all of the above cases1 and believes that the gravity of fair trial violations in the cases of the individuals effectively renders the proceedings against them show trials intended to deter others from taking part in the popular uprising.
Amnesty’s concerns about the unfairness of the proceedings and blatant biases against defendants are further heightened by shocking public statements and official documents that show the head of the judiciary, parliamentarians, prosecution authorities and a senior police chief calling for speedy trials, the imposition the death penalty and public executions.
On 6 November 2022, state officials have called on the judiciary to expedite the prosecution of individuals detained in connection with the protests and for the imposition of the death penalty. In a shocking statement read during a public session of parliament, 227 of 290 parliamentarians labelled some protesters “mohareb” (an individual accused of “waging war against God”), likened them to the Islamic State (IS) armed group, and called on the judiciary to “show no leniency” and to issue death sentences against them to “serve as a lesson” to others2. Amnesty International calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately quash all death sentences, refrain from seeking the imposition of the death penalty and drop all charges related to the peaceful exercise of human rights.
WIDESPREAD USE OF LETHAL FORCE
Iran has been rocked by a nationwide popular uprising against the Islamic republic system since the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini at the hands of Iran’s “morality” police on 16 September 2022. Security forces have responded with unlawful force, including lethal, killing hundreds of men, women and children and injuring thousands of others.
“In the name of the God of Rainbows” - This is how 10-year-old Kian Pirfalak started his video for a school project, capturing the hope of Iran’s children for a brighter future. Kian is one of at least 43 children unlawfully killed by Iran’s security forces since mid-September.
In our last briefing on Iran on 26 October 2022, we detailed how deadly crackdowns on protest, enabled by a crisis of systemic impunity in Iran, had led to the death of at least 144 protestors. This number has since risen. Since protests erupted in mid-September up until 22 November 2022, Amnesty has now recorded the names and details of 305 people killed by security forces. Amnesty International continues to believe the real death toll is higher and it is continuing its investigations to identify victims. The security forces are ruthlessly persisting in their widespread use of unlawful lethal force, exposing a clear intent to kill or maim protesters in their quest to quell the popular uprising at any cost. Since the 15 November 2022, they have also intensified their exclusive use of live ammunition to disperse protests in provinces populated by Kurds and other oppressed ethnic minorities.
1Documented violations of fair trial rights include: denial of the rights to access a lawyer of their choosing from the time of arrest and throughout the investigation and trial proceedings; to be presumed innocent; to remain silent and not to be compelled to incriminate oneself or to confess guilt; to be protected from torture and other- ill-treatment; to obtain full access to relevant evidence; to the exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of international standards; and to receive a fair, public hearing before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal.
2 Following significant domestic and international criticism, the parliamentarians have since backtracked and disputed the accuracy of the statement.
ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS
According to a leaked audio file obtained by BBC Persian, the authorities arbitrarily arrested between 15,000 and 16,000 people in the first wave of arrests since the protests began. Those arrested include protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, dissidents, university students and schoolchildren. Many have been subjected to enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trials. On 8 November 2022, the Iranian judiciary announced that 1,024 indictments had been issued in relation to the protests in Tehran province alone, without providing further details on the charges.
The safety and treatment of those detained in Iran continues to be a pressing concern, as exemplified by the torture of prisoners at Evin Prison during the fires on the 15 October 2022. On 18 November 2022, Amnesty International issued a public statement outlining the evidence we have gathered that raises serious concerns that the authorities sought to justify their bloody crackdown on prisoners under the guise of battling the fire and preventing prisoner escapes3. The arbitrary and abusive force used by Iran’s security forces and prison officials against prisoners who were confined within the walls of a prison affected by fire and had no chance to escape offers further evidence of the extreme brutality Iranian authorities routinely use to crush dissent.
3 Testimonies obtained by Amnesty International from prisoners, victims’ relatives, journalists and human rights defenders with contacts inside the prison reveal that prison officials at Evin prison and anti-riot police repeatedly fired teargas and metal pellets at hundreds of prisoners, and subjected many to brutal beatings with batons, particularly on their heads and faces. Amnesty International is also gravely concerned about eyewitness accounts emerging from inside the prison indicating that security forces pointed guns to the heads of several women prisoners and may have also fired live ammunition towards some male.
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