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Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

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Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

Euro-MPs condemn Jabbari execution, call Hassan Rouhani 'Moderation' a myth

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Reyhaneh Jabbari
Friends of a Free Iran group in the European Parliamnet says the execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari shows that ‘moderation’ with the new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is nothing but a myth.

Press release – Friends of a Free Iran –25 Oct 2014 - Brussels:

We are totally outraged of the news of execution of Ms Reyhaneh Jabbari, Iranian 26-year-old decorator who was kept in jail in the past 7 years for having defended herself against a sexual aggression by an intelligence officer of the Iranian regime.

She was hanged this morning in a prison outside the capital Tehran.

Reyhaneh was only 19 when an agent of the regime tried to lure her to come and decorate his home and later tried to drug her and rape her. Reyhaneh defended herself with a knife and fled and the agent later died of bleeding in the hospital.

Amnesty International and many international organisations protested loudly to her death sentence and said she had been put under sever torture to make confessions.

Last week president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz wrote a letter to Iranian authorities calling for Reyhaneh’s execution to be halted.

This despicable hanging of a young girl who only acted in self-defence along with a series of systematic acid attacks on women in the streets which have caused several deaths and severe injuries in recent days once again show that ‘moderation’ with the new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is nothing but a myth.

It’s time for urgent action by the international community to punish the Iranian regime for committing these crimes against its own population.

Gérard Deprez MEP
Chair of Friends of a Free Iran, European Parliament

Source: NCRI, October 25, 2014


Reyhaneh Jabbari executed in defiance of international campaign to spare her life

Press Release by International Committee In Search of Justice - 25 Oct 2014

Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, a university student and decorator, was hanged at dawn on Saturday in a prison outside of Tehran for the murder of a former intelligence official, Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, who had tried to rape her in 2007. The UN and many international bodies including Amnesty International had said her confession was obtained under intense pressure and threats from Iranian prosecutors. Amnesty International said she was convicted after a deeply flawed investigation. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s human rights rapporteur on Iran, has said that she had acted in self-defence.

Sarbandi had offered to hire Jabbari to redesign his office and took her to an apartment where he tried to sexually abuse her. She had grabbed a knife and defended herself and fled. Sarbandi died later of bleeding at the hospital. After her arrest, Jabbari had been placed in solitary confinement for two months, where she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer or her family. She was sentenced to death by a Tehran court in 2009 and her execution verdict was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. Her case drew international outcry and sparked a petition urging her release, which collected several hundred thousand signatures.

Jabbari's mother, Shole Pakravan, confirmed the execution, saying she was going to the cemetery to see her daughter's body. Ms Pakravan had been allowed to see her daughter for an hour on Friday.

The Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi said today: “The savage hanging of Reyhaneh Jabbari is the other side of the coin of the mullahs' anti-human crime of acid attacks against innocent Iranian women and girls.”

Iran has witnessed a wave of repressive acts against women recently, including dozens of organised acid attacks for “mal-veiling”. More than 1000 people have been executed since the so called “moderate” President Rouhani took office.

The international committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) calls on the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and international human rights and women rights organizations to strongly condemn the brutal execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari and to refer the case of human rights violations in Iran to the UN Security Council to make binding actions to stop torture and executions in Iran.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras
Vice-President of the European Parliament (1999-2014)
President of the International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ)

Source: NCRI, October 25, 2014
Location: Tehran, Iran
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