No Moderation in Iran; War On Human Rights Intensifies, According to OIAC

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to recent reports, Iran's highest court has affirmed a sentence wherein an Iranian prisoner will have eyes gouged and his right ear and nose cut off. This news is a disturbing reality of inequities and barbarism on which the Iranian regimes judiciary is predicated.

The fact that Iran's highest courts would resort to such practices demonstrates that the concept of fair and impartial justice does not exist in modern Iran. This reality was in full display during a recent public execution in which a prisoner was denied a final embrace from his mother as he was heading to the gallows; the prisoner was then beaten after he protested this denial.

This is not the first time the Iranian authorities have used cruel and unusual punishment in their administration of justice. In 2008 an Iranian man was ordered to be blinded by acid. Iran has also routinely used stoning, amputation and other forms of horrific punishment against those it deems to be criminals. 

This sentence comes despite the ongoing myth of "moderation" in Iran, which was noted by U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, who in a news briefing stated; "There were some encouraging signs last year where political prisoners were released ... But it appears at least in the past seven weeks that in fact executions have been scaled up."

We regret that ordinary Iranians will have to continue to suffer extreme forms of torture and persecution before the international community recognizes that no substantive change has occurred in Iran.

The Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) condemns this inhumane sentence and categorically rejects the legitimacy of the Iranian regimes judicial system. Iran continues to lead the world in per capita executions, and remains one of the worst human rights violators in the world.

We call on the international community and in particular the United States to address the issues of human rights and civil liberties in regards to Iran, and use every opportunity to pressure the Iranian regime to end it's inhumane practices.

www.oiac.org

SOURCE OIAC