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11 August, 2009
The human rights group Amnesty International said last week at the time of the illegitimate inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran has experienced an “alarming spike” in the number of executions since the disputed 12 June election.
“In just over 50 days, we recorded no less than 115 executions,” said the London-based watchdog group in a statement. “That is an average of more than two each day.”
In comparison, Amnesty said that between 1 January 2009 and the election day, Iran carried out 196 executions. “This represents a significant increase, even compared to the appallingly high rate of executions that has been so long a feature of the human rights scene in Iran,” Commented Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Kahn.
Amnesty International joined Education International (EI), the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on 26 June in drawing a global focus on the plight of trade unionists who have been jailed and falsely charged and convicted for trade union activities. Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi of the Syndicate of Workers’ of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, Farzad Kamangar of the Irainian Teachers’ Trade Association, and a group of five activists of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Workers’ Union continue to be persecuted and imprisoned for exercising their basic human rights.