33,000 Executioners: Documents Reveal Who's Responsible for Horrific Abuses in Iranian Prisons

he National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) recently presented documents and information exposing the miserable prison conditions in Iran, demanding that those involved in the mistreatment of these prisoners be brought to international courts.

The Council stressed that Iran’s Prisons Organization is one of the most heinous criminal devices of the mullahs' regime that rules the state through suppression, torture, execution, and prisoners.

It is noteworthy that human rights and international reports issued during the past months had revealed that the Iranian prison authorities had committed horrific abuses against prisoners, which claimed the lives of dozens of them.

On the other hand, the Iranian regime is making extraordinary efforts to cover up the human rights situation and the horrific abuses that have been committed for more than 4 decades, and is insisting on denying the information on which human rights organizations rely in issuing their statements.

 

Prison Executioners

The NCRI revealed, in a press conference held in Paris on May 13, 2022, the names of more than 33,000 members of the Prisons Organization in the Mullahs' regime (leaders, investigators, intelligence agents, and executors), as well as photos of 22,000 of them, which the judiciary deliberately hid and replaced with the signature of the owner of the photo, in addition to the names of 1,169 members of the Central Committee of the Prison Organization.

The conference, which was held by NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee members Behzad Naziri and Ali Safavi, presented the names and photos of those responsible for torture, interrogation, and execution of prisoners, and explained the dire state of prisons in Iran.

The organizers of the conference indicated that it aims to identify those responsible for the Iranian regime's abuses that were touched upon in international and UN reports on the human rights situation in Iran.

On his part, Mr. Behzad Naziri referred to the ongoing protests across Iran against the backdrop of the deteriorating economic situation and the regime's systematic suppression of dissent.

Mr. Naziri said, “The ruling theocracy in Iran had arrested hundreds of young people during the recent protests, in addition to dozens of teachers,” stressing that “these arrests come as part of the regime's failed efforts to prevent the spread of protests across the country.”

“Iran’s deteriorating human rights situation since Ebrahim Raisi became the regime’s president,” he also noted.

In turn, Mr. Ali Safavi explained the catastrophic and inhumane situation of the prisons of the Mullahs' regime, saying: “Many of these prisons were built more than 50 years ago, and the buildings are now very dilapidated.”

“The mission of Iran’s Prisons Organization is to put prisoners at large rates in the wards with the aim of double physical and psychological torture to terrorize society,” he stated.

In the context of his presentation of the table of prison names and their absorptive capacity and their real capacity, Mr. Safavi spoke about the dire situation of prisons and their overcrowding of prisoners, pointing out that the number of inmates reached 3-4 times their capacity.

Mr. Safavi said, “At least 25 prisoners died in custody (during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency of the judiciary), including three political prisoners,” noting that “the deaths occurred as a result of beatings and torture during detention, denial of necessary medical care, and ill-treatment by the authorities.”

Mr. Safavi also revealed the death of prisoners under torture during the tenure of the current Chief Justice, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, noting that “the Iranian judicial authorities had often claimed that the prisoners committed suicide, or tried to portray their death as a natural death.”

“The prisoners' food and bread had been reduced to less than half, which led to many prisoners starving from hunger because they did not have the financial resources,” he stated.

He also noted that “the Iranian regime does not provide medicines and care to prisoners,” pointing out that “all kinds of skin and infectious diseases are rampant in prisons.”

“In many prisons, there is no separation between the categories of prisoners, and political prisoners are held alongside dangerous criminals, which makes them vulnerable to torture and harassment. There is no suitable place for prisoners to rest, forcing them to sleep and rest in the corridors or in front of the toilets,” Mr. Safavi said.

“Forcing prisoners to work is a routine procedure, as tens of thousands of prisoners work in jobs whose income goes entirely to the pockets of judicial officials, and prisoners receive only a meal in return for their work,” he stressed.

He reported that “female prisoners were subjected to more pressure, extortion, and sexual assault by corrupt prison officers.”

 

Horrific Abuses

NCRI’s conference highlighted the report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, which he submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2022.

The conference also touched on the Amnesty International report issued on April 13, 2022, which indicates that the Iranian prison authorities committed horrific abuses, including deliberately preventing sick prisoners from obtaining medical care, and refusing to investigate deaths resulting from illegal activities.

During the conference, a recent investigative titled: In death’s waiting room: Deaths in custody following deliberate denial of medical care in Iran’s prisons, issued by Amnesty International, which documents the prison authorities’ involvement in the deaths of dozens of prisoners by preventing their dispatch or delaying the transfer of emergency cases to hospitals, was presented.

The investigation detailed the deaths of 92 men and four women in 18 provinces and 30 prisons across Iran since January 2010.

It also included documents collected by Amnesty International on the deliberate denial of access to adequate medical services and care in prisons, and a detailed review of reports from independent human rights groups and organizations.

At the time, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Diana Eltahawy stated that “the Iranian authorities' appalling disregard for human life and sick prisoners has effectively turned the country's prisons into an antechamber for death.”

Resolution 68, which condemns human rights abuses in the Mullahs' regime and was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2021, expressed grave concern about the widespread and systematic use of arbitrary arrests, and detention and the deliberate denial of prisoners' access to appropriate medical care and equipment.

The resolution also referred to particularly appalling acts and persecution and intimidation, including the kidnapping, arrest, and execution of political opponents, as well as arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment to which demonstrators are subjected to and the use of torture to obtain confessions and suspicious deaths in prison.

In response to what the NCRI recently revealed about the names of the executioners, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI, said: “The Iranian regime's prisons mean nothing but torture and murder, and the recently exposed documents are a glimpse into the atrocities committed by the regime, which executed 120,000 political prisoners and killed thousands of protesters.”

“A United Nations fact-finding mission must be formed to inspect Iranian prisons, refer the Iranian prisons file to the UN Security Council, and bring the regime’s leaders, especially Khamenei and Raisi, to justice for crimes against humanity in the past four decades,” she added.

“Failure to act towards the crimes of the Iranian regime is a disgraceful stain on contemporary humanity and a rejection of the values on which the UN and the EU were founded,” Mrs. Rajavi emphasized.

 

Execution as a Tool of Suppression

As for the unfair rulings of the Iranian judiciary against prisoners and dissidents, a report issued by two non-governmental organizations reported an increase in the pace of executions in Iran after the election of the former chief justice, Ebrahim Raisi, to the presidency.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) confirmed in a report published on April 28, 2022, that “Iran continued to carry out death sentences and used the death penalty as a tool to suppress many opponents.”

According to the two organizations' annual report, “at least 333 people were executed in Iran in 2021, an increase of 25% compared to 267 in 2020.”

The report expressed concern about a significant increase in the number of people executed for drug offenses, in addition to the execution of at least 17 women, 2 minors and members of ethnic minorities.

The two organizations explained that “the inhuman practice (the death penalty for murder) is unpopular with Iranians,” noting that “the authorities use it to spread fear and make ordinary citizens accomplices in their brutality and violence.”

They also pointed out that physical and psychological torture is used systematically in prisons, especially as a means to extract confessions that later become the basis for death sentences.

In turn, Mr. Zaid Mastou, a Syrian journalist and editor-in-chief of the Iran Wire website, said in a statement to Al-Estiklal: “The Iranian regime relies on imprisonment as a means of suppression, just like other dictatorial countries in the region, and Iran is full of prisons and detention centers for dissidents and prisoners of conscience.”

Regarding the methods used by the West to deter the Iranian regime, Mr. Mastou explained that “the West is putting pressure on Iran, but not enough to prevent this regime from committing abuses.”

He added, “Economic sanctions actually weaken the Iranian regime, but do not stop it from its criminal practices,” noting that “the intersection of interests sometimes pushes Western countries to ease pressure on it, as is happening now in the Ukrainian war, as Washington is trying to obtain Iranian oil instead of Russia in exchange for lifting some sanctions on Tehran.”

It is noteworthy that Amnesty International’s annual report issued in April 2021 made it clear that the Iranian regime is solely responsible for half of the executions carried out globally during 2020, and that Iran is the only country that witnesses executions of children.

In the same context, several international human rights groups have pointed out that Ebrahim Raisi has long been known as a mass murderer, as he was one of the most prominent decision-makers in the 1988 massacre in Iran that claimed the lives of more than 30,000 political prisoners.