Letter from Saeed Masouri, a Death Row Prisoner; We Witness an Execution Every Four Hours

Saeed Masouri, a political prisoner held in Qazalhasar prison who has been sentenced to death for 25 years, wrote in a letter detailing the torture he has endured: "If at one time we faced executions every few weeks and months, now we witness an execution on average every four hours." He added, "Perhaps in these 25 years, I have become so submerged in the crimes of this murderous regime that all of this is merely a drop in the ocean of the crimes of this regime of the worst of the worst." He stated that "only during this Christmas season, nearly 25 innocent people were executed, meaning approximately one execution every two and a half hours." He emphasized: "This is the twenty-fifth of Dey and Christmas that I am in prison; I do not know what else these eyes must see and what burdens and heartaches this heart must endure. I am writing this letter not to the people of my homeland (who do what they can) but to all awakened consciences in international human rights organizations, especially the UN Human Rights Council (High Commissioner), reporters, especially the special reporter Ms. Mai Sato, and all influential figures." This political prisoner also urgently called on the UN Secretary-General, the President of the European Commission, and the President of the European Parliament to take more serious actions to prevent executions by the Islamic Republic, not to view the number of executions merely as numbers, and to condition diplomatic and political dealings with this "execution regime" to adherence to human rights standards. He concluded by noting: "Perhaps if effective actions had been taken earlier, today even Ms. Cecilia Sala, the Italian journalist, would not have fallen victim to the hostage-taking policies of the Islamic Republic." Saeed Masouri is one of the oldest political prisoners in Iran. He was arrested on January 9, 2001, in Dezful and spent 14 months in solitary confinement at the Intelligence Department of Ahvaz before being transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. In 2002, he was sentenced to death for the charge of Moharebeh (waging war against God) in the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, but his death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment.