Amnesty International condemns death penalty of Zahra Bahrami

6 January 2011
 Amnesty International has condemned the death penalty imposed on 2 January 2011 on Zahra Bahrami, who holds joint Dutch-Iranian nationality, for alleged drug trafficking. Her lawyer has said that she was sentenced by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
’We oppose the death penalty in all cases as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation of the right to life,’ said Eduard Nazarski, Director of Amnesty International Netherlands, ’and are particularly concerned at the very high level of executions in Iran, the majority of which are for alleged drug offences. We urge the Iranian authorities to commute her sentence immediately’.
Zahra Bahrami, who had travelled to Iran to be with her daughter who was undergoing chemotherapy, was arrested on or around 27 December 2009 in Tehran, in the aftermath of demonstrations against the government on the religious festival of Ashoura, which were violently repressed by the authorities. Held for months without access to her family, a lawyer or Dutch consular assistance, she was reported to have ’confessed’ on television to ’forming an [illegal] group with three others’, possessing weapons and planning or engaging in acts against national security, and to have ’confessed’ to having contact with two banned organizations, the Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran (API), and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). Further allegations of narcotics offences were brought against her later, raising questions about the intent of the authorities in her case. Her lawyer has said that she has yet to be tried on the charges of ’enmity against God’, for which she could receive an additional death sentence.
’We are also very worried that her trial was unfair, as she was held in incommunicado detention, which we know from experience facilitates the use of torture or ill-treatment, there are reports that she has been beaten during her detention and she appears to have been forced to confess guilt on television, which violates international fair trial provisions’, said Eduard Nazarski.
Amnesty International wrote to the Head of the Judiciary in August 2010 seeking clarification of her legal status, urging that any allegations of torture or ill-treatment should be immediately and impartially investigated and stressing that under no circumstances should she be put to death.
Two men were executed in January 2010, in the aftermath of the disputed June 2009 presidential election, after conviction of ’enmity against God’ in connection with their alleged membership of the API. Another man , Ali Saremi, was executed without warning on 28 December 2010. He had been convicted of ’enmity against God’ for his alleged membership of the PMOI. At least seven other alleged members or supporters of the PMOI are currently on death row in Iran.
In recent months, Iranian officials have indicated that the authorities will crack down more harshly on drug offenders. For example, in October, the Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said that new measures had been adopted to speed up the processing of drug offenders’ cases and that the authorities would ’show no mercy’.