Iran executes someone every nine hours

Iran has hanged two men for their activities during the turmoil following President Ahmadinejad’s controversial election victory in 2009.

Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the two men Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj Aqaei were hanged for distributing placards and photos of the terrorist group, making videos and images during the post-election unrest in Iran in 2009 and chanting slogans in favor of the MKO.” (The MKO, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization, the government claims is a terrorist organization).

According to the Iran’s Press TV the two hanged men “had carried out activities against the Islamic Republic in liaison with agents in Britain.”

The hangings come five months after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Iranian government to stop executing men who were exercising their right to free expression.

The United States is deeply concerned that Iran continues to deny its citizens their civil rights and intimidate and detain those Iranians who seek to hold their government accountable and stand up for the rights of their fellow citizens, said the Secretary’s statement.

We are also concerned about the fate of Iranians who are in danger of imminent execution for exercising their right to free expression after the June 2009 elections, including Jafar Kazemi, Mohammad Haj Aghaei, and Javad Lari. The United States urges the Iranian Government to halt these executions in accordance with its obligations to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners and imprisoned human rights defenders.

According to ynetnews of Israel, Iran has now executed 64 people is just the past twenty-four days, or on average one person every nine hours.

Most of the executions so far this were imposed upon drug offenders. The Islamic Republic’s constitution imposes the death sentence upon convictions of murder, rape, adultery, armed robbery and espionage.

Last week, ten drug smugglers were executed.

Iran is widely regarded as having the world’s highest rate of annual executions relative to its population – last year, at least 180 Iranians were executed.