One those executed, Mohammad Sayyahi, aged 19, was arrested 40 days ago along with a group of youngsters in the city of Ahwaz (southwest Iran) by Intelligence Ministry agents. Most of those arrested were from the families of the Mojahedin.
Mohammad and 17 of those arrested were transferred to Khorramabad and put under torture. Mohammad's toes were broken due to the tortures.
His father, Mehdi, aged 69, had gone to Khorramabad prison to inquire about his son's fate. When he protested after being told of Mohammad's execution, the security forces in the prison detained and put him under torture. Mr. Sayyahi died in hospital on Thursday, March 11, due to the severity of his injuries suffered under torture.
Previously, Mohammad's brother, Habib, an Electronics Engineer, and his sister, Hamideh, a Pediatrician, were executed in Ahwaz during the massacre of political prisoners in 1988.
Following Khatami's appointment of Ali Younessi as the Intelligence Minister, a new wave of political executions and arrests has been underway across the country. Last Saturday, Ali-Asghar Ghazanfarnejad, a Mojahedin political prisoner, was executed in Tehran's Evin prison without any trial or access to a lawyer.
The NCR again calls on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and other human rights organizations to condemn arbitrary executions in Iran and take action to save the lives of those arrested.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 16, 1999
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