Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor March 6, 2007
The Islamic Republic of Iran, with a population of approximately 68 million, is a constitutional, theocratic republic in which Shi'a Muslim clergy dominate the key power structures. Article Four of the constitution states that "All laws and regulations…shall be based on Islamic principles." Government legitimacy is based on the twin pillars of popular sovereignty (Article Six) and the rule of the Supreme Jurisconsulate, or Supreme Leader (Article Five).
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dominated the tricameral structure of government (legislative, executive, and judicial branches). He was not directly elected but chosen by an elected body of religious leaders, the Assembly of Experts. Khamenei directly controlled the armed forces and exercised indirect control over the internal security forces, the judiciary, and other key institutions. Hardline conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in June 2005 in an election widely viewed as neither free nor fair.
The legislative branch is the popularly elected 290-seat Islamic Consultative Assembly, or Majles. An unelected 12-member Guardian Council reviewed all legislation passed by the Majles for adherence to Islamic and constitutional principles and also screened presidential and Majles candidates for eligibility. The Majles was dominated by conservatives, due in part to the Guardian Council's extensive screening of candidates in the 2004 Majles elections. Prior to the June 2005 presidential elections, the Guardian Council excluded all but eight of the 1,014 candidates who registered, including all women. The Guardian Council and parliamentary electoral committees screened candidates for the December 15 municipal council and Assembly of Experts elections, disqualifying scores of reformist candidates. The civilian authorities did not maintain fully effective control of the security forces.
The government's poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous, serious abuses. The following significant human rights problems were reported: severe restriction of the right of citizens to change their government peacefully; unjust executions after reportedly unfair trials; disappearances; torture and severe officially sanctioned punishments such as death by stoning; flogging; excessive use of force against demonstrators; violence by vigilante groups with ties to the government; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of judicial independence; lack of fair public trials; political prisoners and detainees; severe restrictions on civil liberties including speech, press, assembly, association, movement, and privacy; severe restrictions on freedom of religion; official corruption; lack of government transparency; violence and legal and societal discrimination against women, ethnic and religious minorities, and homosexuals; trafficking in persons; incitement to anti-Semitism; severe restriction of workers' rights, including freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively; and child labor. On December 19, for the fourth consecutive year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing detailed, serious concern over the country's human rights problems.
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
There were reports ofexecutions after unfair trials. Exiles and human rights monitors alleged that many of those supposedly executed for criminal offenses, such as narcotics trafficking, were political dissidents.
The law criminalized dissent and applied the death penalty to offenses such as apostasy, "attempts against the security of the State, outrage against high-ranking officials, and insults against the memory of Imam Khomeini and against the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic."
On January 24, according to domestic press reports, two bombs exploded in the city of Ahvaz, in the ethnic Arab majority province of Khuzestan, with as many as nine dead and 40 wounded. On January 28 and February 28, there were further bombings but no casualties reported. The violence came amid social unrest that began with the April 2005 publication of a letter, claimed by the government to be a forgery, alleging government plans to reduce the percentage of the Ahvazi-Arab population in the province. The bombings follow similar bombings in June and October 2005.
Government officials initially blamed "foreign governments" for the bombings, but on June 8, the revolutionary court in Khuzestan announced death sentences for nine ethnic Arabs in connection with the bombings. On March 2, authorities executed Mehdi Nawaseri and Ali Afrawifor their involvement in the 2005 bombings. Afrawi was a minor at the time according to the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Amnesty International (AI). On November 9, authorities in Khuzestan confirmed the sentences of execution of an additional 10 ethnic Arabs in connection with the January and February bombings. All sentences were imposed following secret trials that the international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said could not be considered to meet international standards (see section 1.e.). According to an AI report, three of the accused bombers were executed on December 19 in a Khuzestan provincial prison.
On May 11, according to HRW, authorities executed Majid Segound and Masoud Naghi Biranvand, both of whom were age 17 at the time of their execution.
The government responded forcibly to weeks of demonstrations by members of the ethnic Azeri minority, which protested a May 19 newspaper cartoon viewed as offensive to the Azeri population. The government initially denied any protesters were killed, but on May 28 a police official acknowledged that four were killed and 43 injured in the northwestern town of Naqaba.
On July 31, student protester Akbar Mohammadi died in Evin Prison following medical complications related to a hunger strike. Police first arrested Mohammadi following his participation in July 1999 student demonstrations to protest government closure of newspapers. Authorities reportedly denied Mohammadi's parents permission to see their son's body and did not respond to calls for an independent investigation into the cause of death.
In November 2005 an appeals court ordered the case involving the death of Zahra Kazemi, a dual-national Iranian-Canadian citizen, to be reopened; however, at year's end there was no progress and the case remained under review. Kazemi, a photojournalist, was arrested for taking pictures while outside Evin Prison in Tehran during student-led protests. She died in custody in 2003 after allegedly being tortured. Authorities admitted that she died as a result of a blow to the head. In June the Kazemi family filed a civil case against the Iranian government in Canadian courts.
According to a 2005 AI report, during the previous 15 years there were reports of at least eight evangelical Christians killed in the country (see section 2.c.).
During the year there was no statement altering the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps's (IRGC) February 2005 announcement that Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989 religious decree calling for the killing of author Salman Rushdie remained in effect. There was no further action on the killing of strikers in 2004, the killings and disappearances reported by the Special Representative for Iran of the Commission on Human Rights (UNSR) in 2001, or the killings of members of religious minorities following the revolution.
b. Disappearance
Little reliable information was available regarding the number of disappearances during the year.
There were no developments in the October 2005 case of journalist Massoumeh Babapour, found barely alive after being abducted and repeatedly stabbed, after threats calling her an atheist and claiming religious authorities had sentenced her to death.
According to an AI report in 2005, between 15 and 23 evangelical Christians were reportedly missing or "disappeared" during the past 15 years.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The constitution prohibits torture for the purposes of extracting a confession or acquiring information. In 2004 the judiciary announced a ban on torture, and the Majles passed related legislation, approved by the Guardian Council. Nevertheless, there were numerous credible reports that security forces and prison personnel tortured detainees and prisoners.
In June the government sent Saeed Mortazavi, the Tehran general prosecutor, to represent the country at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council. Mortazavi was accused by human rights groups of grave human rights abuses, including murder and torture, and was reportedly involved in the 2003 killing of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi (see section 1.a.).
In October the government sent Interior Minister Mostafa Purmohammadi as its representative at the Tri-Partite Commission of Iran, Afghanistan, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. Purmohammadi has a history of human rights abuses, including participation in the 1988 mass execution of several thousand political prisoners at Evin Prison and the 1998 murders of writers and dissidents throughout the country.
The penal code provides for the stoning, or lapidation, of women and men convicted of adultery. In 2002 the head of the judiciary announced a moratorium on stoning but reportedly ended the moratorium in August. Prior to August there were reports of judges handing down the sentence. On May 7, according to AI a woman, Mahboubeh Mohammadi, and a man, Abbas Hajizadeh, were stoned to death in the northeastern city of Mashhad. A court convicted the pair of adultery and the murder of Mohammadi's husband.
In June 2005 a court sentenced a man to have his eyes surgically removed. According to human rights specialists, such sentences were rarely implemented; rather they were used as leverage to set "blood money." Nonetheless, in November 2005, domestic press reported prison authorities amputated the left foot of a convicted armed robber.
In 2004 AI reported that it had documented evidence of "white torture," a form of sensory deprivation. Amir Abbas Fakhravar, a political prisoner, was sent to the "125" detention center, controlled by the revolutionary guards. According to AI his cell had no windows, and the walls and his clothes were white. His meals consisted of white rice on white plates. To use the toilet, he had to put a white piece of paper under the door. He was forbidden to speak, and the guards reportedly wore shoes that muffled sound. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture listed sensory deprivation among the techniques constituting torture.
In July 2005 according to domestic press, Abbas Ali Alizadeh, the head of the Tehran judiciary and head of the supervisory and inspection committee to safeguard civil rights, provided Tehran Judiciary Chief Mahmud Ali Hashemi-Shahrudi with a detailed report as a follow-up to Shahrudi's directive on respect for citizens' rights. This unreleased report was described in detail in the media and outlined abusive human rights practices in prisons, including blindfolding and beating suspects, and leaving detainees in a state of uncertainty.
Also in July 2005, according to domestic press, the deputy national police commander for criminal investigation said police would investigate any reports of torture. He said torture was not only against regulations, but that forensic and scientific advances have made torture unnecessary. Nevertheless, its existence in the criminal investigation departments was undeniable.
The government relied on "special units" (yegan ha-ye vizhe), to complement the existing morality police, called "Enjoining the Good and Prohibiting the Forbidden" (Amr be Ma'ruf va Nahi az Monkar) in an effort to combat "un-Islamic behavior" and social corruption among the young. These auxiliaries were to assist in enforcing the Islamic Republic's strict rules of moral behavior. Credible press reports indicated members of this morality force chased and beat persons in the streets for offenses such as listening to music or, in the case of women, wearing makeup or clothing regarded as insufficiently modest or being accompanied by unrelated men (see section 1.f.).
According to a December 21 AI report, a woman identified as "Parisa" received 99 lashes in December, a reduction of the original sentence of death by stoning for adultery.
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
Prison conditions in the country were poor. Many prisoners were held in solitary confinement or denied adequate food or medical care to force confessions. After its 2003 visit, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions reported that "for the first time since its establishment, [the working group] has been confronted with a strategy of widespread use of solitary confinement for its own sake and not for traditional disciplinary purposes." The working group described Sector 209 of Evin Prison as a "prison within a prison," designed for the "systematic, large-scale use of absolute solitary confinement, frequently for long periods."
In March 2005 the UK-based International Center for Prison Studies reported that 142,851 prisoners occupied facilities constructed to hold a maximum of 65,000 persons. In May official statistics from the State Prison Organization put the number of prisoners at 147,926.