New Executions in Vakilabad- About 500 Executions in One Prison
Since October 2012- IHR Urges the International Community to Intervene
Immediately
Iran Human Rights, February 24: On February 3
, Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that secret executions in Vakilabad prison had resumed
after several months’ halt due to international reactions. The executions began in October 2012
and have been taking place on Wednesdays and Sundays every week. On a few occasions there
have been three weekly executions. Each time, at least ten prisoners are hanged; on two occasions
in November and December, thirty-five and fifty prisoners were executed respectively. The executions
take place in complete secrecy, and the phone lines of the prison are cut off several hours before the
executions. - Neither the prisoners nor their families and lawyers (if they have them) are informed about
the executions in advance.
Tens of prisoners, among them a possible minor, executed on February 10 and 13
Reliable reports from Vakilabad prison indicate that the mass executions are still taking place.
IHR has now received more details about the mass executions which occurred on Sunday,
February 10 and Wednesday, February 13. According to these reports, at least ten prisoners
were executed on February 10, while the number of prisoners executed on Wednesday February
13 was much higher. Most of those executed were convicted of drug related charges. However,
a possible minor offender was among those executed on February 13: a young boy who had just
turned eighteen and was convicted of murder. According to our sources, the boy was allegedly a
minor and under narcotic-induced psychosis when he committed the offence.
Many Afghan citizens among those executed:
IHR has also received reports about a significant number of Afghan prisoners among those executed
in the Vakilabad prison in the past few months. The bodies of the executed Afghan prisoners, which
were not transferred to Afghanistan, are buried at a section of the Mashhad Cemetery (Behesht-e-Reza)
along with the bodies of the other prisoners executed secretly in Vakilabad. This part of the cemetery
is monitored by cameras and patrolled by the Iranian security forces. A recent report from BBC Persian
supports IHR’s reports on execution of Afghans in Vakilabad. On February 23, BBC Persian reported
that bodies of five Afghan prisoners, who were executed in Iran, were buried in the Kalafgan district of
Takhar Province in Afghanistan. Quoting the families of those executed, the report says that about 80
people from this district have been executed in the last six months in Iran. The report said that 50 bodies
were trensferred to Afghanistan while the remining bodies are being kept at cold rooms in Iran.
United Nations must intervene
Based on the new information about the mass executions in Vakilabad, IHR has sent an urgent appeal to
the United Nations (UN) to send a fact finding mission to Iran. IHR spokesperson Mahmood Amiry-
Moghaddam said: “What is going on in Vakilabad is a massacre. These are arbitrary and unlawful mass
executions that must be stopped[…] We urge the UN to send a fact finding commission to Iran immediately
and we ask the international community to react. Hundreds or possibly thousands of the prisoners can be
executed in the coming months.” Amiry-Moghaddam also urged the Afghan government to follow up the
situation of its imprisoned citizens in Iran more closely, saying, “Afghan citizens are among the weakest in the
Iranian society. Many of those imprisoned do not have access to lawyers and their execution is violation
of international obligations. Unfortunately, the Afghan government doesn’t seem to pay much attention to
its imprisoned citizens in Iran.”
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Overfilled prisons Iranian authorities’ motivation for the mass executions?
According to unconfirmed reports, there could be as many as 3,000 death row prisoners in Vakilabad in
danger of execution in the coming months. IHR believes that secret executions also take place in other
Iranian prisoners. In its annual report from 2011, IHR reported confirmed secret executions in fifteen
different Iranian prisoners. One of the reasons for the secret mass executions in Vakilabad and other
Iranian prisons is that the prisons are overfilled. According to official Iranian reports, there are 600,000
prisoners in the Iranian prisons. IHR’s sources estimate that there are 20,000 prisoners in Vakilabad,
though the prison only has the capacity to house 4,000 inmates. According to eyewitnesses, in some of
the wards the prisoners have to sleep on the steps and in the corridors. The situation is similar in several
other Iranian prisons, and it seems that mass execution of the death row prisoners is one of the solutions
Iranian authorities have sought to overcrowded prisons in Iran.
Human rights groups published the first reports on secret executions in Vakilabad prison in 2010.
According to the estimates at least 500 prisoners were executed in 2010-2011. Names of more than
100 executed prisoners were published in 2011. The executions halted in 2011 due to international attention.
However, the executions have resumed and according to IHR’s conservative estimates that about 500 prisoners
are executed in this prison since October 2012.
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