NEWS)))))
Iranian authorities hanged five individuals in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, a state-run daily reported on Thursday.The five individuals were hanged on Wednesday, the daily Tehran Emrooz wrote.Three of the men were accused of murder, while the other two were accused of drug trafficking.
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Authorities have hanged a man in public in the northern Iranian city of Gorgan, state media reported on Tuesday. Abolfazl Shahrabadi was hanged on Sunday, the official news agency IRNA said. Shahrabadi was accused of murder.Gorgan is situated in the Iranian province of Golestan.
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Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern town of Kazeroun, the official state daily Iran reported on Monday.The man, only identified by his first name Sirous, was accused of murdering another man.Kazeroun is situated in Iran’s Fars Province.
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The main Iranian opposition group, which has challenged its black-listing by the European Union, scored a major victory in the Italian Parliament on Thursday.The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) has cried foul over the EU’s decision not to remove its name from the terrorist register despite a verdict by the European Court of First Instance last December annulling the EU’s decision to blacklist the group. The Court ordered the EU to remove the PMOI from the list of organizations whose assets were to be frozen in the fight against terrorism.On Thursday, the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a binding resolution calling on the government of Romano Prodi to urge the European Union to implement the European court order.The resolution gained cross-party support and obligated the Italian government to “support the 12 December 2006 verdict of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities in the meeting of the Council of the European Union”.EU Foreign Ministers will be meeting in Luxembourg on June 18-19, when they will likely discuss the matter.The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the main opposition coalition which includes the PMOI, in a statement welcomed the Italian resolution.“Many Senators and Members of Parliament from the ruling party and the opposition, as well as a Parliamentary majority have signed a statement addressed to the European Union in which they called on it to respect the verdict of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg”, the Parliamentary resolution said, referring to the announcement in March that 318 of the 630 Members of Parliament had signed a statement in support of the PMOI.The PMOI recently filed another complaint at the European Court of First Instance, accusing the EU of defying the original Court verdict and demanding 1 million Euros compensation.
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The U.S. State Department accused Iranian regime on Tuesday of being a major hub of human trafficking.The State Department 2007 annual Trafficking in Persons Report listed Iran alongside Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Sudan, Bahrain, Oman, Syria, Burma, Kuwait, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela as the worse offenders.“Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude”, the report said. “Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced marriages to settle debts. Children are trafficked internally and from Afghanistan for the purpose of forced marriages, commercial sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers. “According to nongovernmental sources, Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation. Media sources reported that 54 Iranian females between the ages of 16 and 25 are sold into commercial sexual exploitation in Pakistan every day. “The Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Credible reports indicate that Iranian authorities commonly punish victims of trafficking with beatings, imprisonment, and execution. “Sources report that the Iranian government fails to meet the minimum standards for protection of victims of trafficking by prosecuting and, in some cases, executing victims for morality-based offenses as a direct result of being trafficked. “The Government of Iran did not improve its protection of trafficking victims this year. The government reportedly punishes victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; for instance, victims reportedly are arrested and punished for violations of morality standards such as adultery, defined as sexual relations outside of marriage. Although it is unclear how many victims are subjected to punishment for acts committed as a result of their trafficking experience, there were reports that child victims of sex trafficking have been executed for their purported crime of prostitution or adultery. “The government runs 28 “health houses” set up by the state-operated Welfare Association to provide assistance to unmarried girls who have run away from their homes and who are at risk of being trafficked. However, girls reportedly are abused in these shelters, even by shelter staff and other government officials. The Government of Iran should take immediate and significant steps to prevent the punishment of trafficking victims and should improve the protection services available to victims”, the report said.
