Four executed in Iran on charges of "insulting" the regime's leaders"

Four persons hanged in public in the southwestern city of Ahwaz on June 17 had been charged with "insulting His Eminence Imam Khomeini and the Great Leader Ayatollah Khamenei," the government-controlled Tehran daily, Hamshahri, reported on June 18. To overshadow its crime, the clerical regime also accused the four victims of "armed robbery and mischief-making."

In announcing that the four men hanged in public had been charged with "insulting" the regime's leaders, the ruling theocracy aims at terrorizing young people, who are increasingly displaying their opposition to the clerics in power. These days, on the occasion of June 20 anniversary, Resistance supporters have been writing slogans in public places against the regime's leaders. In many protest demonstrations across the country, people have been chanting similar slogans.

An anti-human law that the ruling mullahs have demagogically named the "Islamic Punishments Act" explicitly sets the death penalty as a possible sentence for "insulting the Leader."

Numerous political dissidents, activists and Mojahedin supporters have been executed in recent years on false charges such as drug trafficking and armed robbery. This is the first time, however, that the government-controlled press acknowledge this heinous crime.

In letters to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, UN Special Representative on the Human Rights Situation in Iran Prof. Copithorn, and international human rights organizations, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran has called on them to strongly condemn this wicked crime. The Committee urges the relevant UN bodies and all governments and international human rights organizations to voice their protest against the clerical regime's inhuman crimes.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 20, 1998

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