The Foundation for Democracy has written to the Government of Iran, requesting information on the execution of 4,000 alleged drug traffickers since 1989. The executions were announced by Mohammad Javad Heshmati, acting deputy chairman of Iran's anti-narcotics headquarters, during a Tehran press conference on November 10, 1995
The Foundation is concerned that the Islamic Republic is using accusations of drug smuggling as a cover to arrest and execute political opponents of the regime. As a first step toward verifying claims by the government that those executed were indeed engaged in drug smuggling, the Foundation has requested a list of the 4,000 executed persons, including the dates and place of their execution, and the court that sentenced them.
In a July 9, 1995 interview on Iranian television, law enforcement Brigadier-General Mehdi Ayoub, who was identified as Iran's "top anti-smuggling police official," announced that the authorities had arrested 13,000 persons on smuggling charges over the preceding three months. In a dispatch dated Oct. 4, 1995, the Iranian News Agency said the authorities had arrested 30,000 persons in drug-related cases during the year ending March 20, 1995.
Similarly, the Foundation is concerned with the arrest of individuals in Sistan va-Balouchistan province, in southeastern Iran, on charges of "banditry" and "smuggling."
On June 7, 1995, a group of 97 "bandits" were captured by government forces in southeastern Iran, IRNA reported. The agency identified the ringleader, Abdollah Lashari, as a "notorious bandit." But Iranian opposition sources contacted by the Reuters news agency (6/7/95) said Lashari was a long-time member of the Balouch nationalist opposition. This followed earlier arrests in February and March of 1995, which led to the May 29, 1995 hanging of 11 individuals in the city of Kerman on charges of drug-smuggling and banditry.
The Foundation has written to the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamene'i, President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the Ministries of Justice, Interior, and Foreign Affairs, and has sent an inquiry to Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, to request clarification about executions of Iranian citizens on charges of drug-smuggling, and for information on the whereabouts of Abdollah Lashari and his followers.
The Foundation is concerned that these arrests and executions are part of a pattern by the authorities of the Islamic Republic to round up political opponents to the regime on the pretext of common criminal behavior.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director (exec@iran.org). FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org/.