Iran: 17 executions in four days including at least 3 young prisoners
Thursday, 28 April 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran
The antihuman mullahs’ regime hanged 17 prisoners in the time span of April 23 to 27. On Wednesday, April 27, six prisoners were collectively hanged in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison. One of the prisoners by the name of Milad Mostakhdem had been taken to the hanging pole for the seventh time, a known method used by the regime’s henchmen to psychologically torture prisoners. On April 26, three young men – aged between 22 to 30 years – were executed in Zahedan’s central prison while another prisoner was executed in Qazvin prison. Two other prisoners were hanged in a prison in the city of Sari on April 24. And five prisoners were collectively hanged on April 23 in Zahedan’s central prison. As such, the number of executions in April reaches 52. The objective of these arbitrary and collective executions is to intensify the climate of horror and fear and prevent the explosion of popular discontent and loath, especially of the youth, against the Iranian regime. These executions happening concurrent and after visits to Tehran by the Italian Prime Minister and the EU High Representative demonstrates that visits by European officials not only fail to result in any improvements in human rights, but embolden this regime in its brutal and systematic violation of human rights. Economic and political relations with this regime lack all legitimacy and need to be preconditioned to an improvement of human rights, particularly a halt in the executions.
The Iranian Resistance calls on the Iranian people, especially the courageous youths, to stand up against the crimes and collective and daily executions by this regime and to express their solidarity and sympathy with the families of those executed and the prisoners.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Iran regime broadcasts video to recruit children for Syria war http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/terrorism-fundamentalism/20261-iran-regime-broadcasts-video-to-recruit-children-for-syria-war
Thursday, 28 April 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI – The Iranian regime, faced with a crisis in recruiting fighters to defend Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, has embarked on a new propaganda campaign to encourage children to join the war in Syria.
The Iranian regime’s state media have been broadcasting a new promotional clip entitled ‘Martyrs who defend the sacred shrine’ in recent days encourage young children to take part in the war. The video has been produced by the official Bassij Music House, the propaganda arm of the regime’s paramilitary Bassij, a branch of the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
In parts of this clip, young children are shown singing:
“Let’s rise up to save the sacred shrine.
I have joined [Imam] Hossein’s army division.
… I have a warrant from the [Imam Ali] to defend the sacred shrine.
On my leader [Ali Khamenei’s] orders I am ready to give my life.
The goal is not just to free Iraq and Syria;
My path is through the sacred shrine [in Syria], but my goal is to reach Jerusalem.
… I don’t regret parting from my country;
In this just path I am wearing my martyrdom shroud.
… From Mashhad [north-east Iran], I will walk on foot to Damascus.
I am like the bird who flocks to the sacred shrine.”
The slogans and images in the video are reminiscent of the regime’s recruitment effort during the Iran-Iraq war after it faced a public backlash in recruiting soldiers, which led the mullahs to instead use young Iranian children as human waves to clear the minefields. None of its efforts at the time bore fruit, and eventually the regime’s founder Khomeini was forced to accept a ceasefire, which he described as a “chalice of poison.”
In the Iranian regime’s lexicon, “defending the sacred shrine” is the equivalent of deploying the forces of the IRGC and more recently the regular army to Syria to defend the Assad regime as he massacres the people of Syria. This is while the majority of the Iranian regime’s casualties are near Aleppo which is several hundred kilometres away from the holy Shiite shrines near Damascus.
Commenting on the broadcasting of the new promotional clip, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said:
“This promotional clip first of all manifests the anti-human nature of the regime which seeks to even mobilize the children of its own loyalists as cannon fodder. This and similar measures by the mullahs’ regime indicate a strategy deadlock for the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Syria which is Tehran’s main hub for exporting terrorism and fundamentalism to the region. They point to widespread dissatisfaction in Iran of the regime’s warmongering in Syria and its internal isolation. After having attempted to deploy its IRGC forces and foreign militias including Afghans, Lebanese and Iraqis, and even its regular army units, the regime has resorted to recruiting children to the war fronts.”
“But this disgraceful and inhumane act will not bring the regime out of a deadlock, just as it failed to do so during the Iran-Iraq war. The difference is that this time the regime has already used up all its strategic resources, and it is in a far more fragile state,” Mr. Gobadi added.
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, on April 17 told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that the Iranian regime is putting all its effort into saving the Assad regime even while it knows that it is fighting for a lost cause, because it has no other solution. If Assad falls out of power in Syria, it will lead to the overthrow of the regime in Tehran, she added.
Iranian refugee, 23, self-immolates; call for support for Iranian refugees in Australia
National Council of Resistance of Iran/April 28, 2016/The Iranian Resistance declares its deep regret for the self-immolation of an Iranian refugee, 23, that occurred during a visit by a UNHCR delegation from a refugee camp in New Guinea. This Iranian refugee, reported to be in dire condition, is among around 800 Iranian and Afghan refugees who had succeeded in reaching Australia but the Australian government, in breach of recognized refugee standards, has sent these refugees to Papua Islands in New Guinea. The Supreme Court in Papua, New Guinea, issued a verdict on April 26 declaring Australian refugee camps on its soil in violation of New Guinea’s constitution and ordered the camps to be promptly closed. However, the Australian government announced that it shall not accept any of these refugees on its soil. The Iranian Resistance calls on the international community, especially the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Union and its member states, to condemn Australia’s ill-treatment of Iranian refugees and their expulsion from its soil in flagrant violation of international conventions and covenants and it further urges political parties and organizations defending refugee rights and human rights in Australia to rush to the aid of these refugees and prevent pressures brought upon them and their refoulement to Iran. Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.April 28, 2016
