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Mehrangiz Kar
This week, 36 Majlis (Islamic Republic of Iran Parliament) representatives who are among the most radical Ahmadinejad supporters have introduced a “double urgent” bill that mandates the execution of detainees accused of moharebeh within 5 days, reducing the time limit for an appeal to be filed from the current 20 days. Moharebeh, literally meaning “war against God”, is a charge that has been vastly interpreted – particularly in the years immediately following the Islamic Revolution – to condemn opponents of the regime. Recently, hardliners have increasingly used the term to describe those taking part in the anti-government protest movement.
This bill is extremely dangerous. This project and the way the authorities are rushing to pass this bill imply that the Islamic Republic of Iran already has a list of names of individuals whom they intend to execute. It also shows how worried Iran’s leaders are about the prospect for international pressure to prevent these executions if they are not quickly implemented. The hardliners likely fear that, in the event of executions being announced, international pressure would compel some of the more moderate politicians within the Iranian system to negotiate with key world players and find a way to revoke these sentences – thus, to prevent such an outcome, they wish for all moharebeh executions to be expedited.
As they seek to pass this bill and other new laws, the system must pay attention to legal articles in the laws of the Islamic Republic that include respecting the rights of the accused and the right to appeal. The right to appeal is particularly crucial in moharebeh cases, as the verdicts of execution on charges of moharebeh can be obtained by creating false or weak charges against the accused. Additionally, the effort to create a legal basis for expedited executions is contrary to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic that orders for respecting the rights of the accused. Not only is the Islamic Republic disregarding the limited rights that the laws have recognized for the accused and Iranian citizens, but Iranian leaders are also now proceeding to create more violent laws and policies against the people of Iran. They are explicitly violating international laws and conventions that the Islamic Republic has signed.
Ahmadinejad and his supporters in the Majlis are mobilized, it seems, to disregard international norms and the most basic human rights principles and to do whatever they can in order to create an atmosphere of fear and to stay in power. The intention of this policy is to create an intense environment of terror and fear in the society through these executions. However, they are making yet another major mistake by proceeding with this bill and any new executions, which is sure to further enrage the people of Iran.
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