Reported & Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, Jan. 21, 2019 – In outrageous remarks, Iranian regime attorney general Mohammad Jaffar Montazeri stressed that human rights have no place in the Islamic Republic and emphasized the need to continue the outdated rules the mullahs have imposed on the Iranian people under the name of Islam and God. Among these rules are punishments for gouging eyes and severing hands and feet.
Montazeri said, “The execution of hudud (religious punishments) can’t be stopped. We can’t give in to pressures imposed by those who falsely claim to be defending human rights and stop the hudud.”
What Montazeri means by religious punishment are sentences such as stoning people to death, lashing them in public and plucking out their eyes or cutting off their limbs because of disregard for what the mullahs consider “religious boundaries.” The implementation of hudud in Iran since the mullahs rose to power has been the source of outrage and controversy in Iran and across the world.
On January 16, Montazeri had expressed his distress that the international community has condemned his regime’s use of violent punishment mechanisms. “One of our mistakes has been to let ourselves been influenced by human rights criticism that we are being too rough on thieves,” Montazeri said.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights explicitly bans any form of inhumane punishment against criminals and people who violate laws. For the Iranian regime, violent torture and punishments are one of the main pillars of their rule and their means to maintain hold on power.
In many cases, Iranian regime authorities used vague and trumped up hudud charges to prosecute, punish and execute political dissidents.
In the past 40 years, the Iranian regime has been condemned 65 times for its human rights violations and its violent judiciary rules.
In November, the UN General Assembly’s 3rd committee penned and passed a draft resolution that condemned the Iranian regime for its blatant human rights violations.
The UNGA resolution voiced concern for the Iranian regime’s continued disregard for international judiciary and human rights norms.
The UN resolution also expressed concern about the “alarmingly high frequency” of the use of death penalty in Iran, especially against minors, “the widespread and systematic use of arbitrary detention,” poor prison conditions including “deliberately denying prisoners access to adequate medical treatment,” and “cases of suspicious deaths in custody.”
