PARIS, 2 October 2003 — Iranian courts have sentenced three men to death for, in at least two of the cases, having contacts with outlawed political organizations, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said in a statement yesterday.
It said Ramine Sharifi, 27, was sentenced on Sept. 7 by a revolutionary court in Saghez, in the Kurdish-dominated north, for allegedly belonging to the Democratic Kurdistan Party of Iran, though it added that he had the right to appeal. Said Masouri, 38, had his June 2002 death sentence confirmed recently by an appeals court which heard that he had contacts with the People’s Mujahedeen, an exiled opposition group.
The FIDH said it had not been able to confirm the charges against the third man, Gholamhossein Kalbi, but noted that he was in the prison of Evin, on the same death row as Masouri.
The FIDH and the League for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran said in the statement that they “called on Iranian authorities to guarantee these people the right to a fair trial” and renewed their appeal for a moratorium on capital punishment.
They added that they also wanted the European Union to begin lobbying against the execution of the three.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at Canada yesterday for what it described at “undiplomatic” behavior, taking issue with complaints in Ottawa over Tehran’s record on human rights and the nuclear issue. “With these kinds of uncustomary and undiplomatic statements, the Canadians have put themselves into a position of weakness for political discussions and have damaged the development of trust and understanding between the two countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the state news agency IRNA.
Asefi was reacting to comments on Monday by Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham, who announced Canada’s ambassador to Iran was to return Tehran after several months of being kept at home in protest over the beating death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.
Graham said two main reasons for the return of Ambassador Philip MacKinnon were the decision by Iranian authorities to put on open trial a suspect in the Kazemi case and the need to maintain pressure on Iran not to develop nuclear weapons.
Graham said MacKinnon will be carrying a letter from Prime Minister Jean Chretien insisting “that in the matter of Madame Kazemi’s death, Canada continues to press for the return of Madame Kazemi’s body to Canada and to press for a full, open and transparent trial whereby those who are responsible for her death are brought to justice.” Asefi hit back by saying “this kind of statement has no effect on the policy of the Islamic republic.”
Dual national Kazemi died in custody in Iran on July 10 after she was arrested for photographing outside a prison.
Deadline May Not Be Met: Loathe to ditch a project it began in 1985 and riven by factional disputes on how to respond to international pressure, Iran appears unlikely to allay fears about its atomic aims before an Oct. 31 UN deadline.
