Shirin Ebadi: Death is the True Identity of the Islamic Republic Government

Shirin Ebadi, head of the Human Rights Defenders Center and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stated that "it does not matter who is president, who is head of the judiciary, and who are the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly." She wrote: "The Islamic Republic's approach to all challenges and issues is nothing but physical elimination and repression, and year by year, the statistics of executions rise higher and higher because death is the true identity of the government." On Thursday, October 11, she added on her Instagram page: "Iranian citizens are facing a government and are fighting despite all dangers and costs, which has executed 538 people since the beginning of this year. This means that the Islamic Republic has executed an average of two prisoners every day in the country’s prisons." The Iran Human Rights Campaign also announced on Thursday that coinciding with the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, the Islamic Republic executed at least 12 people in various prisons across Iran within 24 hours. In its statement, the Iran Human Rights Campaign criticized the regime's approach to justice, stating: "The death penalty is considered state-sanctioned murder and is in contradiction with human dignity, just like torture." This human rights organization emphasized that "in authoritarian countries like Iran, most defendants are deprived of the right to a fair trial and the right to adequate defense," stressing that "the fight against the death penalty is even more necessary in such corrupt and ineffective criminal regimes." The statement adds that in the Islamic Republic system, the death penalty is disproportionately applied against minorities or marginalized groups, reflecting the political-security objectives of the regime. Additionally, the "Progressive Student Organization" declared in a statement: "On the World Day Against the Death Penalty, we shout: We will destroy the executionist government." The statement noted that the recorded statistics of executions worldwide clearly show why a revolution with the central slogan "Women, Life, Freedom" has begun in Iran and continues its path to victory. This student organization emphasized that "life" is a right that is taken away from us people more than any other government on this planet, adding: executions of children, executions based on confessions under torture, executions of drug prisoners, executions of political and ideological prisoners, public executions, executions due to relationships or sexual orientations outside the government’s norms, and executions based on accusations that are not even considered crimes in most parts of the world; these are just part of the Islamic Republic's deliberate killings against human lives in Iran. Previously, Prince Reza Pahlavi emphasized on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty that all eyes should be on the Islamic Republic on this day. He wrote on social media X: The Islamic Republic regime "as part of Khamenei's war against the Iranian people, annually murders hundreds, including children and political prisoners, without a fair trial process, and has the highest execution rate in the world." May Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, also stated in a video message on Wednesday, October 10, that since the beginning of this year, "at least 500 executions have been reported in Iran" and called for an end to executions by the Islamic Republic in Iran. He identified one of the major concerns as the "targeted use" of the death penalty by the Iranian government against women activists and supporters of the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in custody of the morality police in September 2022. October 10 is designated as the World Day Against the Death Penalty. This day was first introduced and named in 2003 by the "World Coalition Against the Death Penalty" to support the abolition of the death penalty and raise awareness about the conditions of prisoners sentenced to death.