|
IRAN HANGS IRANIAN-DUTCH WOMAN FOR DRUG SMUGGLING
January 29, 2011: an Iranian-Dutch woman, Zahra Bahrami, arrested after taking part in anti-government protests in Iran in 2009, was hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison for drug smuggling, the semi-official Mehr news agency said. Zahra Bahrami was charged with Moharebeh (war against the God) by branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court on August 16, 2010. Her charges included: “acting against national security, propaganda against the establishment, Moharebeh, and membership in the Monarchist Association”.
The 45-year-old woman's daughter was quoted by the New York-based rights group International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran as saying the drug charges were fabricated. Mehr reported that she had been found guilty of smuggling cocaine into Iran from the Netherlands and was found with 450 grams of the drug in her possession. Bahrami, who according to the International Campaign for Human Rights, lived in London but visited her family in Iran, took part in opposition demonstrations marking the Shi'ite Muslim festival of Ashura in December 2009. (Sources: Reuters and Iran Human Rights, 29/01/2011)
|
