Street exhibition by Iranian diaspora highlighting the 1988 massacre, mainly MEK members and supporters, in Iran, Paris (file photo)

Iran has the most number of executions per capita in the world, as well as being the world’s top executioner of juveniles, having executed at least 3,800 people since supposed moderate Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013.

This should come as no surprise because all the way back in 1980, when he was a lawmaker, Rouhani called for the Regime’s political opponents to be hanged in public at Friday prayers to serve as an example to others.

These executions have continued in Iran throughout 2019, with at least 199 people executed so far this year, according to Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran-HRM). This is despite the fact that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, condemned Iran’s execution rate in 2018, specifically the executions of at least six juvenile offenders.

Under the Regime’s so-called Citizens Rights Charter, Iranians don’t have a right to life and the age at which the death sentence can be handed down is nine for girls and 15 for boys.

The most common victims of this heinous crime are activists of the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), with some 120,000 of them executed by the Regime since 1981.

Some 30,000 of these were executed under a fatwa by Regime Founder Ruhollah Khomeini in 1988 after hastily set up Death Commissions held kangaroo trials and ordered the execution of anyone who refused to renounce the MEK. The victims were buried in mass graves, their deaths covered up, and those responsible given cushy positions in the Regime, like current Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi and current Justice Minister Alireza Avaei.

Amnesty International, the late UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Asma Jahangir, and Iran HRM all called for an independent investigation into the massacre, but so far it has not materialized.

Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi wants to ensure that the death penalty is banned in Iran, alongside torture and all other human rights abuses; something they’ve advocated many times over the past four decades.

Rajavi said:

“Our plan for the future is to put an end to the mullahs’ religious decrees. We reject the inhuman penal code and other abusive laws of this regime. We believe Retribution is an inhuman law. Our plan is to institute an independent, dynamic and free judiciary. Our plan is to defend democratic values, freedom, equality, and sanctity of every citizen’s private life…. Our plan is for all citizens to enjoy genuine security and equal rights before the law. We are seeking a new order based on freedom, democracy, and equality.”

Staff Writer