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Iranian justice ‘an illusion’, says IBAHRI

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has reiterated its call for the Iranian authorities to halt immediately any trials and planned executions of protestors.
 
It has urged Iran’s authorities to end “unfair trials” and has called and for a moratorium on all planned executions, as well as the release of all prisoners detained for participating in demonstrations.
 
IBAHRI has highlighted the case of Mohammad Ghobadlou, whom it says is at “imminent risk” of execution. He is 22 years old, and is reported to have a mental disability.

“Under international law, this should preclude him from receiving a death sentence,” the human-rights group states.

Call for probe into ‘suicides’

The IBAHRI has also called on the United Nations to investigate a spate of reported suspicious ‘suicides’ amongst protestors.

The organisation says that, from 8 December 2022 to 7 January 2023, the Iranian authorities put to death several dissidents exercising their rights to protest.

“It is reported that the executions took place less than two months after their arrests and, in some cases, without their families being informed,” an IBAHRI statement said.

‘Chilling effect’

IBAHRI director Baroness Helena Kennedy KC commented: “The politically charged nature of these cases, the denial of access to adequate legal representation, the use of vaguely worded criminal provisions, the expedited rate of the proceedings and executions, and the visible signs of torture leading to forced confessions of the defendants are all emblematic of the Iranian authorities’ attempts to instil a chilling effect in protestors.

“It is clear that the Iranian Revolutionary Courts have been weaponised to target political dissidents and those exercising their human rights.”

IBAHRI co-chair Anne Ramberg described justice in Iran as “an illusion”.

“With Iran’s Revolutionary Court issuing the majority of rushed and arbitrary executions, it cannot be viewed as anything other than acting at the whim of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” she said.