LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Two rights groups urged the
Iranian judiciary on Thursday to quash death sentences against
five members of Iran’s Arab minority and halt their executions
on grounds of torture and unfair legal proceedings.
London-based Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
which is based in New York, said in a statement the five had
been sentenced last year on terrorism-related charges because of
their links to a banned cultural institute that promoted their
Arab heritage.
Their death sentences were upheld last week and they were
transferred from Karoun prison in Ahvaz, capital of the
southwestern province of Khuzestan. Their families no longer
know where they are being held, the statement added.
“The reported transfer of these men to an unknown place is
an extremely worrying development,” said Ann Harrison of Amnesty
International. “We fear the authorities may be planning to
execute them imminently.”
Families of the five men, two of whom are brothers, say they
were subjected to “physical and psychological torture” during
their detention, the statement said.
It added that security forces had arrested all five at their
homes in early 2011 in advance of the sixth anniversary of
protests by ethnic Arabs in April 2005.
On Wednesday, 30 human rights organisations and campaigners,
including Iran’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and
Ahwazi Arab campaign groups, urged Iran to stop the
implementation of the death sentences against the five men.
“Among ethnic minorities in Iran, Ahwazi Arabs are subjected
to some of the most severe repression from the central
government,” read their joint statement.
Arab minorities in Iran are mostly based in the southwest.
They complain of economic deprivation and systematic
discrimination by authorities which, they say, try to dilute
their Arab identity.
There are no official figures for the size of the Arab
population but independent estimates count Arabs as the majority
in oil-rich Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq.
Iranian officials maintain they have no problems in
Khuzestan and dismiss talk of human rights violations against
Arab Iranians in Ahvaz as propaganda.
No officials were immediately available to comment on the
statement by the two rights groups.
Four members of Iran’s Arab minority were executed last
year. United Nations human rights experts said they were
sentenced to death after an opaque trial whose fairness was
questionable.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
