British Iranians protest Sunni executions, urge UK government to hold Iran to account

Twenty Iranians are on hunger strike in London in solidarity with those persecuted by the Iranian reg

Twenty Iranians have today entered their third day of a hunger strike in protest against what they say are brutal violations of human rights laws by their country's government.

The protestors, who are camping outside Downing Street in London, have been joined by hundreds of others during the weekend in solidarity with the victims of recent mass executions in Iran.

Last week, up to 20 Sunni Kurds were hanged by the Iranian regime for alleged terrorism offences. Human rights groups have condemned the killings, and claimed that the convictions may have been based on forced confessions.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, branded the executions "a grave injustice" and said there were "serious doubts about the fairness of the trials, respect for due process and other rights of the accused".

Speaking to Christian Today, Hossein Abedini, the UK spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – a coalition of Iranian opposition political organisations functioning as a parliament in exile – also strongly condemned the executions and urged the UK to hold Iran to account.

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Under President Hassan Rouhani, who has presented himself as a 'moderate', human rights violations have rapidly deteriorated, Abedini said. In total, around 120,000 people are believed to have been executed since 1981 for their political or religious beliefs, and the figure has escalated since Rouhani became president. Abedini insisted that the UK's relative silence on Iran's human rights record is "shameful".

"Things have deteriorated and worsened as far as human rights are concerned. There have been 2,500 hangings [since Rouhani came to power in 2013], many juveniles and women have been executed, and religious minorities, especially Christians, are suffering in Iran very badly... There is no freedom for religious minorities; they cannot practice their religion [and they suffer] very brutal and cruel human rights violations," he said.

Iran is ranked ninth on persecution charity Open Door's list of countries where it's most dangerous to be a Christian. Open churches are forbidden, and converting from Islam – the state religion – to Christianity is punishable by death for men, and life imprisonment for women. Last year, more than 100 Christians were arrested or imprisoned, and reports of their torture have emerged.

More widely, Iran has a long history of human rights abuses and violence is rapidly escalating across the country, facilitated by laws which allow the legal persecution of minority communities such as Christians and Baha'i Muslims, who have been condemned by Iranian authorities as an "illegal cult".

"There is no religious freedom in Iran," said Abedini, noting the plight of Saeed Abedini – an Iranian-born US pastor who was released in January after being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison for years – and Maryam Naghash Zargaran, a Christian convert from Islam who remains incarcerated and is said to be in very poor health.

Human rights abuses are not the only concern of campaigners – another is Iran's persistent efforts to acquire nuclear capability – but they are the most prominent.

"The regime itself is the most ungodly regime," Abedini said. Rouhani in 2014 described executions under his rule as the fulfilment of "God's commandments", but Abedini said the majority of Muslims want to distance the brutal punishments from true Islam.

"We believe this is only a fundamentalist regime carrying out [executions] in the name of God and in the name of religion," he said. 'Islam is a religion of compassion and mercy.... [The executions are] absolutely abhorrent, and have got nothing to do with true Islam."

Protesters mount hunger strike outside Downing Street over Iran regime's executions

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Protest: Demonstrators used hangmans' nooses as props during the three-day hunger strike Mohammad Hanif Jazayer

Hordes of protesters have entered the final day of a hunger strike outside Downing Street in a bid to convince the government to condemn “horrific” executions being carried out in Iran.

The three-day starvation demo began on Saturday to coincide with the anniversary of the 1988 massacre in which 30,000 political prisoners were slaughtered in the country.

Over the weekend groups of Anglo-Iranians and British supporters flocked to Downing Street in anger at the execution of scores of Iranian nationals last week.

The National Council of Resistance in Iran says more than 2,500 people have been hanged during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, 

Iran public hanging of a man in Western Iran

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In yet another brutal and horrific act the Iranian fundamentalist regime of Iran has hanged a man in the city of Songhor, Kermanshah province, west of the country. This hanging happens when the mullah’s regime hanged nine other prisoners on Wednesday in the city of Karaj, north-west of the capital Tehran.
This public hanging happened early morning today (Monday) in a public square where people were just beginning to go to work. 
The dictatorship regime in Iran resorts to these horrific and disgusting means to intimidate and create an atmosphere of horror in the country. Just in recent days the regime has hanged about 40 people in different Iranian cities, some in mass hanging and others in public. 
Last Sunday 16 people were hanged and on Wednesday 6 others were sent to the gallows in Gohardasht. Two days ago, on Saturday, the blood thirsty regime of mullahs hanged 3 prisoners in the city of Karaj. These three were hanging collectively. 
The name of five of the prisoners who were hanged on Wednesday were identified as Mohsen Khan-Mohammadi, Mehdi Keshavarz, Alireza Rezai, Saeid Teymoori and Jalil Ramezani. A sixth victim was not named but was only identified as a citizen of Afghanistan.
The mullahs’ regime hanged 18 prisoners over the weekend, including two cases in public. A woman was among those hanged on Sunday.
Eleven prisoners were hanged en masse in Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj on Sunday. Two of the prisoners were identified as Saeed Saberi and Moslem Bahrami. At least one of the 11 prisoners was a woman.
Two men, identified only by their initials Q. J. and M. R., were hanged in public in Karaj on Sunday. The two men were hanged in a public square in the city’s Mehshahr District, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.
Another three men were hanged in prison in the city of Birjand, eastern Iran, on Sunday. They were identified as Mansour Zafarani, Yousef Barahoui and Qassem Delshad. They were accused of drugs-related charges.
Two prisoners, whose names were not given but who were said to be 40 and 49 years old, were hanged on Saturday in Lakan Prison in Rasht, northern Iran, according to the state broadcaster IRIB which quoted Ahmad Siavosh-Pour, the provincial head of the judiciary. They were accused of drugs-related charges.
Also it emerged over the weekend that five men were hanged on July 11 in the Central Prison of Arak, central Iran. They were identified as Masoud Taqi-Pour, Hassan Faraj-Pour, Mehdi Baqeri, Baqer Jalili and Hamid Haqvin. They too were accused of drugs-related charges.
The mullahs’ regime hanged nine prisoners collectively on July 13 in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj.
Three of the executed prisoners were identified as Seyyed Mohammad Taheri, Amir Khadem Rezaiyan and Saeid Ahmadi.
More than 270 Members of the European Parliament signed a joint statement on Iran last month, calling on the European Union to “condition” its relations with Tehran to an improvement of human rights.
The MEPs who were from all the EU Member States and from all political groups in the Parliament said they are concerned about the rising number of executions in Iran after Hassan Rouhani took office as President three years ago.
Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: 'Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before.'
'Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded' in the Middle East and North Africa, the human rights group said.
There have been more than 2,500 executions during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the executions as examples of “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belong to the people.