Iranian women political prisoners demand stopping executions

PARIS: Thirty women political prisoners in Iran, including a Franco-Iranian academic and the daughter of a former president, on Sunday demanded an end to the executions of protesters in the country.

“We, the political and ideological prisoners in the women´s ward of Evin Prison, demand an end to the execution of protesters and an end to unjust sentences of prisoners in Iran,” they said in a petition.

The women inmates said they had been “sentenced to a total of 124 years in prison through unfair and non-transparent procedures, which is worth a few generations of human life”. Despite coming from different religious and political backgrounds, “we have come together to say ´no´ to execution. We defend people´s right to live in justice.”

The signatories included Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in June 2019 and later sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, allegations her family has strongly denied.

Another is former lawmaker Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was sentenced to five years behind bars in January for “collusion against the security of the country”.