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Questions for Iranian President Rouhani

(Huffington Post) Irwin Cotler - Rouhani's charm offensive, including the release of political prisoners, is belied by ongoing human rights violations as documented by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran. Prior to Rouhani's election, Iran had the highest per-capita execution rate in the world. Since Rouhani's election, executions have actually escalated, with some 100 Iranians executed in the past month. Moreover, a large number of prisoners are killed by the regime in secret, so the number of executions is almost certainly higher. At a time when we mark the 25th anniversary of the Iranian regime's 1988 massacre of some 5,000 political prisoners, President Rouhani has appointed Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as Iran's new Minister of Justice. As the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has reported, Pour-Mohammadi - the deputy intelligence minister from 1987 until 1999 - was directly involved in the '88 prison massacre - which a recent unanimous Canadian parliamentary resolution characterized as crimes against humanity. He also was involved in the extra-judicial assassination of political opponents and was responsible for the unlawful killing of dissidents within Iran. The writer is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.
2013-09-25 00:00:00
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