The Iranian officials were reacting to the report by UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed on the violation of human rights and the unprecedented spike in executions, especially that of juveniles, in Iran.
In his interview with Tehran’s state radio and television, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary of the Iranian regime’s Human Rights Council, described the report as unsubstantial, repetitious and non-factual.
Larijani said: “They used our codified charges of Mohareb and ‘Corrupt on earth’ as a pretext in this report despite the fact that they state this section relates to the laws of our country… They need to comprehend qisas since this is a divine decree. Qisas is not execution, but it offers justice to a citizen who deserves it.”
Mr. Shaheed’s report to the current UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva states that at least 966 prisoners were executed in Iran in 2015 which is the highest number of executions in Iran in the past two decades. Similarly, 16 juveniles were executed in Iran during 2014-2015 which is the highest level of executions of juveniles in the past five years. Despite all endeavors, the number of juvenile executions has not only has not diminished but has increased in the past two years.
In another part of his interview Larijani calls Iran the largest democracy in western Asia and notes that Iran does not accept a Special Rapporteur to monitor Iran’s human rights record since Iran is the greatest and most serious democracy in western Asia and that the civil and political infrastructure of no country in this region is as democratic as in Iran.
In his report, Mr. Shaheed refers to 47 journalists and bloggers in addition to hundreds of human rights activists imprisoned in Iran. He emphasizes that there have been no fundamental changes regarding human rights in Iran since 2013. The UN Special Rapporteur also referred to forced confessions extracted through torture from prisoners.
