Judiciary Human Rights Council official website online report denounced report by Ahmad Shaheed and Christophe Heinz, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. The statement rejected the joint report against Islamic Republic of Iran and the Judiciary as baseless, since “the information in the report collected from unauthentic sources, and the rapporteurs had not written to the Judiciary to find the accurate information; the report violates rapporteurs’ summary of their duties provisioned by the Article 2/5,” read the statement.
“On the issue of executions, the Islamic Republic of Iran has many times voiced its position thorugh well-documented response; however, it is unfortunate that the same claims and allegations are made again,” said the statement, “the geographical position of the Islamic Republic of Iran has made it crucial to fight drug cartels, which inflicts much human and other material damage on the country.”
“The capital punishment has been provisioned in the criminal laws of many countries including the Islamic Republic of Iran, and there is no universal consensus advocating its abolition; the Judiciary authorities draw heavily upon the current laws on the crimes; and they organize a fair trial conditions according to their duty and in line with universal standards of unbiased trials,” said the report. “The execution of the convicts is conditioned on special occasions and in crimes which hurt public sentiments and under special conditions, which is intended to discourage the similar crimes in the community to be perpetrated again,” continued the statement.
The report rejected the claims made in the Shaheed-Heinz report about execution of 340 people since the beginning of 2015, and called for any evidence which would be welcomed by the Council for investigation. About execution of 7 women convicts in the same period, the report asserted that “giving verdicts are made regardless of the gender of the convicts; according to the Islamic Criminal Law, Article 437, execution of expecting woman is prohibited, and it would be postponed as long as the life of the newborn is at stake.”
The statement roundly rejected the part dealing with execution of political prisoners, and recommended that rapporteurs avoid putting convicts of terrorism and armed confrontation under the category of political prisoners.
“The right to fair trial in all stages of the case hearing is emphasized by criminal laws regardless of the race, gender, religion, and ethnicity,” said the statement.
The statement also called all special mechanisms and other UN human rights bodies to adhere to impartiality and avoid politicization of the human rights issues.