From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: AI: death penalty news - Dec 92
Date: 4 Jan 93 10:22:45 GMT
Organization: British Telecom

In article <9301020325.AA03208@apollo3.ntt.jp> farzin@apollo3.ntt.jp (Farzin Mokhtarian) writes:

> From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
> Subject: AI: Death Penalty News- Dec92

>    /* ---------- "DEATH PENALTY NEWS: DEC 1992" ---------- */
>    DEATH PENALTY NEWS DECEMBER 1992              AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

>    A SUMMARY OF EVENTS ON THE DEATH PENALTY AND MOVES TOWARDS WORLDWIDE
>    ABOLITION

>    IRAN: Seventeen prisoners convicted of drug smuggling by Iranian
>    revolutionary courts were executed in Tehran on 18 October 1992, according
>    to a report released by the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper on 20 October.

>    According to an AI report "IRAN: Executions of prisoners continue unabated"
>    (AI Index: MDE 13/18/92), the number of executions carried out in Iran for
>    criminal offences, especially for drug trafficking offences, increased
>    sharply from January 1989 onwards. In 1989 AI recorded over 1500 executions
>    announced for criminal offences, more than 1000 of them for drug-
>    trafficking offences. In 1990 at least 750 prisoners were executed, 441 of
>    them for drug-related offences. In 1991 AI recorded at least 775
>    executions. The total figure in each year is expected to be considerably
>    higher. According to Iranian press reports in 1991, the majority of death
>    sentences were passed for drug-smuggling offences. AI is deeply concerned
>    that the nationwide anti-drug campaign, launched in 1989, has led to
>    increasingly arbitrary arrest and summary trial procedures rapidly followed
>    by executions.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Question: what is the source of Amnetsy International?

> If it is MKO, quite a few people in SCI alone have questioned their reliability
> and intentions.

> If not, what is the source? Do they have their own, "unbiased" sources stationed
> in various parts of Iran? I apologize if I seem paranoid and doubt the
> correctness of AI's figures. I know AI is supposed to be beyond doubt but
> I don't have a lot of faith in human nature and AI is run by humans! 

>  - Farzin

> ---------------------------------------------------------
> "Express yourself, so you can respect yourself"!   

When AI talks of actual figures, it usually relies on official
sources, such as here saying: "according to a report released by the
						     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jomhuri Eslami newspaper on 20 October" or  "AI recorded over 1500
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
executions announced for criminal offences, more than 1000 of them for
	   ^^^^^^^^^
drug-trafficking offences".  However, AI also knows that there are
many more executions which have never been officially announced (as
every affected Iranian would testify - myself included).  That is why
it always stresses that "The total figure in each year is expected to
be considerably higher". 

-hossein
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	"I believe, therefore He is"
	"I think, therefore He isn't"
					-The Guardian cartoon
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian