From: farzin@apollo3.ntt.jp (Farzin Mokhtarian)
Subject: Re: AI: death penalty news - Dec 92
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 20:51:38 GMT

From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
Subject: Re: AI: death penalty news - Dec 92
  
@ 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?
@ 
@ 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". 
       
                      
There are still some problems:
   
a. It is not clear to me that "announced" refers to "official" announcements
   and not other sources.
   (I assume you mean government announcements; MKO also has "official"
   announcements)
                    
b. Even if "announced" refers to government announcements, the word
   "announce" is used for the year 1989 only but not any other years.
          
c. Although the title of the report is "Death penalty news: Dec 1992",
   the figures given start in 1989 but no figure is given for 1992
   except for the 17 executed on Oct. 18, 1992. Why is that?
   
d. What is the grounds for the claim that "the total figure in each year
   is expected to be considerably higher"?  Clearly it can not be
   government announcements.
                        
 - Farzin