Iran Human Rights Monitor has published its report on human rights violations in March 2022 with focus on executions, arbitrary killings, torture, violation of the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and cruel and degrading punishments.
The following report is an excerpt from the March 2022 Iran HRM report:
Iran Human Rights Monitor, while publishing the report, draws the attention of relevant international and human rights organizations to the deteriorating situation of human rights in Iran.
This situation, which has worsened especially during the tenure of Ebrahim Raisi as a major human rights violator, must be stopped, and the regime officials must be held accountable internationally for their gross human rights violations.
Violation of the right to life
Carrying out of more than 39 executions in March 2022 indicates the grim violation of the right to life by the Iranian regime’s judicial system. Nineteen of the victims had previously been sentenced to death on drug-related charges, and another 20 on murder charges.
Iran has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world.
Iran Human Rights Monitor has published a detailed report on the executions carried out in Iranian prisons in March 2022.
Systematic and arbitrary murders
Iran Human Rights Monitor has documented at least 11 murders and eight injuries by regime security forces last month.
The use of lethal force against ordinary citizens, including Kurdish porters and unarmed fuel carriers working in the border areas of Iran, is unjustifiable and is clear violation of international law.
Cruel and degrading punishments
Last month, state-run media announced that a man had been flogged in Mashhad. The detainee, accused of insulting Basij forces. Reports said that in this case, the judicial process took less than 24 hours, and he was sentenced to 80 lashes which was carried out in the Mashhad prison. Also, in a humiliating manner, eight defendants were taken to the streets in Isfahan.
Violation of the right to freedom of assembly
At least 20 people including civil and labor activists were arrested by security forces on March 11, during a memorial ceremony for a poet writer Samad Shabani in Karaj.
In another example, according to the announcement of the “Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA)”, security forces and plainclothes agents attacked a teachers’ protest rally in the northern Rudsar city in Gilan province on March 12, and severely beat the demonstrators.
Violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Last month, the Iranian regime suppressed the right to freedom of expression and opinion. Various intellectuals, dissidents, journalists and even athletes were arrested or prosecuted for expressing their views and opposition to the regime’s policies.
Labor activist and financial reporter Amir-Abbas Azarmvand was arrested during a gathering on March 8 in Tehran and taken to prison to begin serving his sentence. A court in Tehran sentenced him to three years and seven months in prison after convicting him of “spreading propaganda against the system.”
The Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Hasti Amiri to one year in prison. Hasti Amiri is a master’s student of law at Allameh Tabatabaii University. She has been charged with propaganda activities against the state, for posting her last year’s photo on March 8 and for tweeting against the death penalty.
Security forces arrested Pardis Rabii on Friday, March 11, 2022, and transferred her to an unknown location, announced the student union councils.
Pardis Rabii, 23, is a genetics student and lives in Yazd. She is a women’s rights activist working on honor killings.
Rafsanjan copper team player Mahsa Kamali was summoned to the disciplinary committee for supporting the Ukrainian people and calling for an end to the war. During a contest on March 4, Ms. Kamali displayed a shirt with “Stop the War” written on it.
Prisoners
Last month, several political prisoners, including Zaratosht Ahmadi Ragheb, Mohammad Houshangi, Ali Musa Nejad Farkoush, Fariba Asadi, and Ebrahim Khalil Sedighi Hamedani, went on hunger strike to protest the violation of their basic rights.
Political prisoners faced deprivations such as the right of access to adequate medical treatment, phone calls, visitations and leave. Political prisoner Houshmand Alipour was deprived of the right to leave and visit his family.
Khosrow Sadeghi Boroujeni, a writer and journalist imprisoned in Evin Prison, was barred from making phone calls.
Nayeb Hajizadeh, a Kurdish political prisoner, is in critical condition in Urmia Central Prison due to being denied access to adequate medical care. He fainted on March 10, due to a seizure, but prison officials refused to provide him with medical treatment.
Thyroid cancer of political prisoner Qassem Abasteh has recurred due to being denied adequate medical treatment. He is in critical conditions in Rajai Shahr Prison.
