Note:  the international campaign to prevent the ten Ahwazi Arabs from being hanged is being backed by gay human rights activists.  None of the ten are know to be gay.

LONDON and TEHRAN  –  November 13, 2006.  Ten Ahwazi Arab rights activists are scheduled to be hanged in Iran this week, according the Iranian media.

They will by hanged from cranes in public, using the slow strangulation method, which is deliberately designed to maximise and prolong their suffering.

“The 10 men were found guilty of bombing oil installations in 2005. But no material evidence of their guilt was offered at their trial,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of the gay rights group Outrage!, who has written about, and campaigned against, Tehran’s persecution of the Ahwazi Arab people..

“All the evidence points to their innocence.

“Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about the fairness of trials involving Ahwazi Arabs and the safety of their convictions.

“The men’s lawyers were not allowed to see them prior to their trial and they were given the prosecution case only hours before the start of the court proceedings, which were held in secret, Mr. Tatchell continued.

“Witnesses for the defence were refused permission to testify.

“The lawyers for the condemned men have been arrested for complaining about the illegal and unjust nature of the men's trials.  They have been charged with threatening national security.

“The ten men sentenced to death were tortured into making false confessions, which are scheduled to be broadcast on Iranian television tonight, Monday 13 November 2006.

“It is widely believed that these men have been framed as part of Tehran's on-going persecution of its Ahwazi Arab ethnic minority population in south-west Iran (the province of Khuzestan).

“In a recent letter to the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, one of Iran’s leading human rights activists, Emadeddin Baghi, said that the trials of Ahwazi Arabs were flawed, the charges baseless, and that the sentencing was based on a spurious interpretation of the law,” said Mr Tatchell.

The men due to hang are: Ali Motairi, Abdullah Solaimani, Abdulreza Sanawati (Zergani), Ghasem Salamat, Mohamad Chaab Pour, Abdulamir Farajullah Chaab, Alireza Asakreh, Majed Alboghubaish, Khalaf Khaziri and Malek Banitamim.

“We appeal to the international community to lobby Tehran to stop these executions. The death penalty is an abuse of human rights law, regardless of whether it happens in the US, China or Iran,” added Mr Tatchell.

“The US and Europe should halt their one-sided obsession with Iran’s nuclear programme, and focus instead on securing international agreement to pressure Tehran over its systemic violation of human rights.

“The planned hangings look like a deliberate attempt by Tehran to intimidate and silence Ahwazi Arab protests against ethnic cleansing and mass impoverishment,” he said.

Mr Tatchell’s Arab Muslim colleague, Ali Hilli, Middle East Affairs spokesperson for the gay human rights group OutRage!, added:

“These flawed trials and barbaric executions of Arabs by the Islamist dictatorship in Tehran are a perversion of Islam.  The regime is without mercy and compassion. It is racist against fellow Muslims because of their ethnic origins.

“These death sentences are part of a pattern of gross human rights abuses. Iran also executes Muslims who turn away from their faith, unchaste women and gay people,” Mr. Ali pointed out.

“It is training, financing and arming the Islamist death squads in Iraq.  With Tehran’s approval, these killers are murdering Sunni Muslims, men wearing jeans or shorts, unveiled women, barbers, sellers of alcohol and videos, and people who listen to western music or who have a stylish haircut.

“Contrary to Tehran’s misinformation campaign, the vast majority of Ahwazi Arabs reject separatism.

“They want regional self-government, not independence.  Nor do they support a US invasion.  This would, they argue, strengthen the position of the hardliners in Tehran, allowing President Ahmadinejad to use the pretext of defence and security to play the nationalist card and to further crack down on dissent.

“Many Ahwazis believe the route to reform is an internal alliance of Iranian democrats, leftists, trade unionists, minority nationalities and local civic organisations,“ concluded Mr Hilli.

The campaign against the executions is backed in the UK by Labour MP Chris Bryant, Tory MP Michael Gove and Green MEPs, Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert.

HOW TO HELP

Note: email addresses below are given in such a way as to prevent spammers from automatically “harvesting” them.  To send an email, replace “at” with the @ sign and remove all spaces.

Citizens of the European Union can urge the EU Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana, to lobby Tehran to commute the death sentences.  Email address: presse.cabinet at consilium.europa.eu

UK citizens can also lobby Foreign Secretary Margret Becket asking her to urge urge the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to press the Iranian government to exercise clemency.  Email address: sosfa-action at fco.gov.uk

Telephone your Member of Parliament or Congressman/woman and request that they press Javier Solana to petition Tehran to halt the hangings.

SEE ALSO

Euro-MPs Demand UN Halts Iran Executions.  UN Secretary General Kofi Annan should insist Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad halts the executions of ten Iranian Arabs due to take place tomorrow, the European Parliament heard today.  (Caroline Lucas MEP webpage, November 13, 2006)