Kianoosh Sanjari [1], a human rights activist and an ex-political prisoner himself, demonstrated against the human rights atrocities in Iran by showing his protest in a gathering together with Amnesty International in front of the Norwegian parliament in Oslo on January 12th.

During this demonstration they protested against the torture of Iranian students who have been imprisoned and are awaiting their death sentence. During this demonstration Kianoosh spoke about the situation of political prisoners in Iran. Alongside him was the representative of Amnesty International in Norway who gave a speech. [See: "Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism [2]", Amnesty International 2008 report on human rights in Iran]

Other speakers were Mahmood Amir Moghaddam (a human rights prize winner in Norway) and Jila Hassanpour (Adnan Hassanpour's sister, a journalist who currently is imprisoned and awaits his death sentence in Iran).

It is an alarming fact that the number of death sentences in Iran are on the rise, comparing 177 death sentences by hanging in 2006 to 298 in 2007. Not only is there a rise in the number of death penalties, there also seems to be more cases of “alternative penalties” like amputating limbs or pushing people off cliffs.

The character of these cruel human rights violations are comparable to the harsh punitive measures taken at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution when the punitive laws of the Sharia, the Islamic law, were literally implemented.

Kianoosh and other human rights activists and advocates are spreading the word about the alarming rise of these human rights violations. It now becomes times that their protests are taken seriously and NGO’s and civil society looks for ways to stop this trend.