(25 October 2010) Iran’s Judiciary should immediately institute a moratorium on all executions at Vakilabad Prison in Mashad and provide a transparent response to allegations of excessive numbers of executions at the facility, said theInternational Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today.
The Campaign continues to receive credible reports from former Vakilabad prisoners about repeated, unannounced group executions of inmates. Reliable sources indicate that numerous executions have taken place inside Vakilabad over the last year and more than 600 inmates remain on death row.
Authorities reportedly executed ten inmates in Vakilabad as recently as Tuesday, 12 October. The numbers of executions publicly announced by the authorities are considerably lower than the actual numbers. Amnesty International reports that at least 388 executions took place in Iran in 2009.
