Judiciary head Larijani denies claims on ‘group executions’ as baseless

The head of Iran’s judiciary has rejected claims that Iran executed a group of drug traffickers in Kerman as ‘baseless and inaccurate.’
Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani who was addressing a meeting of high-ranking officials of the judiciary on Wednesday said that the false claimants of the story should provide the accurate information as to the place and date of executions, “and if they fail, their false claims would be manifest.”

Larijani also reacted to recent resolution by the UN General Assembly on Iran’s human rights record, rejecting the totality of the resolution as ‘mere repetition of former false claims, however in different colorations and format, which would not entail a response.’

“The persistence on their false claims by an international organization and providing evidence drawing upon the Islamic Republic’s enemies and opposition is despicable,” Larijani noted.

On the recent claims made in the media on ‘group and clandestine executions’ of drug traffickers in Kerman, Larijani said that the claims were baseless and that the judiciary would provide the due response should it received any report with exact details of the execution; “a high percentage of the executed individuals are organized drug traffickers and their execution has been communicated with their families and nothing secret has happened here,” he added.

About recent reports on executions in Isfahan, the head of the judiciary said that there was no correlation between the names published in the media and names of individuals executed.

Ayatollah Larijani denounced western double-standards about human rights, and illustrated his case with an example from situation in Bahrain, asking rhetorically that whether Bahraini majority public had no human rights of their own; “currently, Bahraini public grapple with the ruling minority elite to acquire their citizenship rights; or in Gaza Strip, they suffered weeks of bombardment, did not they have any human rights ever?” he emphasized.

He also rejected claims on the violation of rights of women as ‘repeated lie;’ “women in our country are appointed to high positions and roles; the fact of their absence from certain jobs would not prove violation of their rights. For example, in the US, no woman has ever been elected as president; based on that logic, we would accuse the US of violating rights of women as well,” he maintained.