"(August 8, 2013) – Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, should immediately withdraw his nomination of Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi for the post of justice minister, Reporters Without Borders, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and Human Rights Watch said today... ...Human Rights Watch, in a 2005 report, “Ministers of Murder,” documented Pour-Mohammadi’s direct role in the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners. In the summer of 1988, Pour-Mohammadi, then a top deputy to the intelligence minister, sat on a commission charged with interrogating thousands of political prisoners and ordering many of them to the gallows. The death sentences were issued after revolutionary courts had already tried, convicted, and sentenced the vast majority of these people to prison on national security charges following unfair trials.
In the span of several weeks during the summer of 1988, Pour-Mohammadi and other officials sitting on similar commissions throughout the country interrogated thousands of political prisoners, including journalists, to determine whether they continued to hold steadfast in their beliefs, or were willing to repent for their “crimes.” After interrogation sessions that often lasted a few minutes and bore no resemblance to actual trials, commission members ordered the execution of those who refused to express remorse for their political activities. Authorities carried out the executions under a fatwa, or religious edict, issued by then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini and orders from high-level judiciary officials."
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Then again, maybe Iran are not threatening anyone - they simply pull the trigger, no questions asked.
Just a few snippets from the past week out of Iran:
NCRI - The Iranian regime's Foreign Ministry rejected the fresh request by Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, to access the country.
27 August
"We do not consider Ahmed Shaheed to be an impartial rapporteur," Foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said during his weekly briefing with reporters in Tehran, State-run media reported.
Araqchi said Tehran had received two official letters from Shaheed requesting access to assess the human rights situation in the country.
In March, the UN body monitoring human rights in Iran sounded the alarm after Shaheed's latest report touched on restriction of freedom of speech and a slew of other abuses, including torture, forced confessions, secret executions and the jailing of members of the political opposition.
The number of those executed following the regime’s sham presidential election has reached at least 130 counts, of which many were under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged crime, and a number of others were women.
Many of the victims have been hanged in public. On the morning of Sunday, August 18, in an unprecedented measure, three prisoners were hanged in public in three different locations in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran. State-run media outlets published scenes of these vicious crimes on a widespread scale."
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Iran: Hassan Rouhani's FM rejects visit request of UN human rights monitor
"Australian Baha'is want Iran to bring murderers to justice
Sydney, 30 Aug 2013
The Australian Baha’i Community says Iran should bring to justice those who murdered a prominent Baha’i on Saturday.
The killing has come after an ongoing series of murders, unexplained deaths and physical assaults on members of the Baha’i Faith in Iran since 2005.
Spokesperson Venus Khalessi said today that Australian Baha’is are shocked and deeply outraged by the shooting of Mr Ataollah Rezvani in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas on 24 August.
“The Iranian government should take all possible steps to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice," Ms Khalessi said.
“We hold grave concern for the ongoing situation of the Baha’is throughout Iran,” she said.
“Baha’is, numbering 300,000, are the biggest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran yet , despite being model citizens, they are being relentlessly and systematically persecuted.
Series of murders
“Since 2005, at least nine Baha’is have been murdered or have died under suspicious circumstances, and another 52 have been physically assaulted, both by government agents and plainclothes men or unidentified attackers – all without prosecution.
“This violence has a terrifying background -- between 1979 and 1998, more than 200 Baha'is were killed or executed for their faith in Iran.”
Baha’i International Community spokesperson Bani Dugal said Mr Rezvani was shot in the back of the head by assailants.
"There is little doubt that the killing was motivated by religious prejudice,” Ms Dugal said.
“Therefore, it is essential that the Iranian government at the highest levels investigate this without delay under its international obligations.
“In recent years, clerics and the authorities in Iran have sought to create an atmosphere of anti-Baha’i hatred, using the pulpit and state-sponsored media.
“The newly instituted government of President Hassan Rouhani now has a clear choice. It can continue as his predecessors have, allowing such incidents to take place with impunity, indicating to the world that nothing has changed. Or, it can show the world that it is committed to upholding justice and human rights for all Iranians.”
