The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described the execution of four more individuals in Iran without a fair trial as appalling.
The UN Office of Human Rights announced on Friday, December 29, through a post on the social media platform X that Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, characterized the execution of three men and one woman in Iran without a fair trial on alleged charges of “espionage” as appalling.
According to the Office of Human Rights, Volker Türk called for “an immediate halt to any further executions and an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty” in Iran.
#Iran: UN Human Rights Chief @volker_turk deplores execution of 3 men and 1 woman today, allegedly for spying, following trials marred by serious due process concerns. Urges an immediate halt to any further executions and an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 29, 2023
The judicial authority of the Iranian regime announced early Friday morning the execution of four individuals in West Azerbaijan Province, on charges of “waging war against God and corruption on earth through intelligence collaboration” with Israel.
The Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the judiciary, has identified these four individuals as “Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazo and Nasim Namazi.”
Hengaw, a human rights organization, had previously announced that the death sentences of Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazo were carried out at 11 pm on Thursday, December 28, in Urmia Central Prison.
Hengaw stated that the execution of Nasim Namazi has been temporarily suspended.
According to the statement by the organization, citing an informed source, government authorities have informed the families of these prisoners that they will not deliver the bodies of these three prisoners to them.
Branch Three of the Revolutionary Court in Urmia had sentenced five individuals named Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazo, Mansour Rassouli, and Nasim Namazi to death on charges of “participation in intelligence collaboration and espionage for the benefit of Israel” in mid-February of the previous year.
The death sentences of these prisoners were officially confirmed by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court of the country in recent days.
According to reports, these defendants, who are from Urmia, were “abducted” by the intelligence forces of the city in the past two years and have spent “several months in solitary confinement” under “physical torture.”
Aram Omari Bardiani, one of the condemned prisoners in this case who was arrested in the fall of 2021, had previously stated that despite not even knowing what Mossad was, he was forced under torture to make forced confessions about collaboration with Israel.
Mansour Rassouli, another condemned defendant, had previously been identified by Israeli media as an agent of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and reports had been published about the “interrogation” of Mossad agents inside Iran by him.
In addition to the five condemned individuals, five other residents of Urmia have also been sentenced to 10 years in prison on similar charges.
The names of these defendants are Kamran Hanareh, Fakhreddin Dudkanloui Milan, Ashkan Osmannejad Gandoog, Hassan Omarpour, and Amir Moshtaghe Gangcheen.
International human rights organizations have repeatedly warned about baseless security charges against citizens in Iran, as well as the lack of transparency in the judicial process for their cases.