A new round of pressure tactics have been launched against civil and political activists.
The merciless attack on Ward 350 of Evin Prison and the arrest of a number of civil activists and journalists, and the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi, a political prisoner who was executed amid wide domestic and internal protests by human rights activists, are all indications of this new judicial assault.
The mixed atmosphere of threats and fear that has come to dominate prisoners and their families in recent days suggests that this latest execution was nothing other than a show of force against those who protested the attack on the prison ward where political prisoners are kept.
This is particularly insightful when one notes that Khosravi was one of the effective protestors against violence committed on political prisoners on April 17 this year.
Even though the silence of the administration has given the perpetrators of such violence a free hand to continue their criminal acts and has resulted not just in disregard for the protests launched by prisoners but through the transfer of the chief of prisoners to a judicial position now provides him with the ability continue his murders for personal revengeful purposes. Still, while insisting on ending judicial pressures on activists and calling for investigations into the merciless violence committed against political prisoners, which in reality are treated as personal hostages, I demand my request for the complete termination of all executions and particularly political executions as a way to eliminate the means for perpetrating personal vengeance against prisoners.
(Nasrin Sotudeh is a prominent human rights attorney and a former political prisoner.)
Rooz online