International Day Against Capital Punishment: Iranian Rallies in the United States, Norway, and Germany
On the occasion of October 9, the International Day Against Capital Punishment, protests and demonstrations were held in several cities in the United States, as well as in Norway and Germany.
On Friday, October 7, groups of Iranians residing in the United States participated in marches and protest gatherings in Washington and Los Angeles.
Participants, while holding Iranian flags and carrying photos and details of executed political prisoners, chanted slogans against the continuation of capital punishment in Iran and the widespread repression of the people.
In a ceremony held in the American capital, photos and details of a number of political prisoners executed in the 1980s and images from the Khavaran cemetery were displayed on the sides of several trucks and paraded through the main streets of Washington.
In Oslo, Norway, supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and backers of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, along with families of political prisoners executed in the 1980s, participated in a protest gathering while holding a photo exhibition.
In a similar demonstration in Stuttgart, Germany, Himan Qorbani, son of Heydar Qorbani, a prisoner sentenced to death, participated.
Two additional gatherings were also held in Berlin. In the first gathering on Saturday, October 8, members of the “Iranian Political Refugees Association-Berlin” and the “Committee for the Defense of Iranian Political Prisoners-Berlin” participated.
In the second gathering, held by the Iranian Resistance Council in front of the office of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, some family members of political prisoners who testified at the trial of Hamid Noori in Sweden also participated.
Several members of the German Parliament and political figures attended this gathering.
Participants in this gathering, while condemning the systematic violation of human rights and escalating executions in Iran, called for the prosecution of the leaders of the Islamic Republic system and those responsible for mass executions in the 1980s.
Source: Voice of America
