Executions on rise in Iran, says report

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Source: Adnkronos International

Tighter security measures had led to a sharp rise in executions in Iran, according to the international rights group Amnesty International.

In its annual report released in London on Wednesday, Amnesty said at least 335 people were executed in Iran in 2007, seven of them children.

Amnesty said the number of executions had increased since a security clampdown in April and cruel and inhumane punishment was taking place in Iran.

“Sentences of stoning to death, amputation and flogging continued to be passed and carried out,”the report said.

“At least seven people aged under 18 at the time of the crime were executed (last year) and at least 75 other child offenders remained on death row.”

The 2008 report highlighted the case of Makwan Moloudzadeh, an Iranian Kurdish child offender, executed in December last year.

Amnesty said the execution followed “a grossly flawed trial” for three rapes he allegedly committed at the age of 13, eight years earlier.

The human rights group said sentences of flogging and amputation continued to be implemented in Iran, and torture and ill-treatment were widespread in prisons and detention centres.

Amnesty said Soghra Mola was flogged 80 times in November for illicit relations after her death sentence was overturned following a retrial.

At least eight people had their fingers or hand amputated after conviction of theft, Amnesty said.

The rights group said Iran’s minorities were subjected to “state repression”, journalists and activists were subjected to arbitrary arrest and women faced widespread discrimination under the law.