Human Rights Activist: Nuke Deal Harms Iranian Dissidents, Ignores Tehran’s “Policy of Death”

Despite proclamations that the nuclear deal with the P5+1 powers represents “a turning point for Iran,” Hamid Yazdan Panah, a lawyer and human rights activist, wrote that “the facts on the ground” show an increased rate of executions in the Islamic Republic, in a commentary published by Reuters today. 

Panah wrote that, in addition to the increasing number of executions, Iran’s judicial system is highly politicized and “executions … occur with little or no due process.” Sometimes prisoners are sentenced to death in proceedings that take a few minutes.

Panah concluded by lamenting that the nuclear deal not only lacks an identified mechanism for improving human rights, but that it has also eased existing international pressure on Tehran, leaving Iranian dissidents marginalized as “the world continues to avert its eyes from Iran’s policy of death.”

Last week, 53 Iranian dissidents signed a letter stating that the billions Iran will receive due to sanctions relief will go into “the bank account of our tyrants and theocrats,” and will “enrich a repressive regime.”

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Saeed Ghasseminejad, a former political prisoner in Iran and current associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote yesterday that “Tehran has moderated its policies only under pressure; resuming its aggression when that pressure is relieved.”

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Read the full article here.