Date : 20/01/2012
LONDON, Jan 20 (KUNA) -- Britain Friday voiced concern at a spate of
executions and arrests in Iran, including the detention of a number of
journalists over the past month.
Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said the journalists' arrests raised
"serious questions about Iran's stated commitment to freedom of expression".
He said he was "disturbed" at the death penalties handed down to website
developer Saeed Malekpour, blogger Vahid Asghari and website administrator
Ahmad Reza Hashempour.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Office in London, the minister, who is
responsible for the Mideast, called for an urgent review of all the cases.
Burt said: "I am deeply concerned by a new wave of executions and arrests
in Iran. "There are reports that Iran has already executed around 50 people
this year, some of them in grotesque public displays.
This continues a shocking trend of excessive use of the death penalty that
has been condemned by the United Nations.
"There has been a wave of arrests and persecution of researchers and
journalists. "Journalists Saeed Madani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, Marizeh Rassouli,
Mohammad Soleymaninia, Sahameddin Bourghani, Fatemeh Kheradmand, Arash
Sadeghi, Ehsan Houshmand and Hassan Fathi have all been detained in the last
month.
"This raises further, serious questions about Iran's stated commitment to
freedom of expression".
Burt added: "I was also disturbed to see reports of a lack of due process
in the harsh sentencing to death of three Iranians, Saeed Malekpour, Ahmadreza
Hashempour and Vahid Asghari on charges of 'spreading corruption on earth'.
"Civil society organisations have raised serious concerns over the
fairness, transparency and the speed of the court proceedings. Such actions
are contrary to Iran's international human rights obligations and raise
further questions about the inadequate judicial standards.
"I call on Iran to review all these cases urgently". (end)
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