Amnesty International Finds Iran Executions ‘Spike’ in 2021

In his first press conference in post, Setayeshi ruled out exchanging Djalali with another prisoner and any link between the Djalali case and Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian official on trial in Sweden over his alleged role in a wave of prison executions in 1988.

As well as calls for Djalali’s release from Sweden and the European Union, there has been speculation over a possible prisoner swap, but in early May, ISNA news agency suggested Djalali would be executed by May 21.

Setayeshi said that Nouri had been charged under influence from the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Most of those executed in 1988 were MEK members or sympathizers, and some trial sessions have been held in Albania, where the MEK is based. Sweden arrested Nouri in 2019 as he arrived at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport on holiday and has prosecuted him under principles of universal justice.

Setayeshi also addressed the case of Assadollah Assadi, who was jailed February for 20 years for planning a bombing of an MEK gathering in France in 2018. The spokesman said Assadi’s arrest, prosecution and sentencing were not legal, and called for his release.

Djalali was arrested while visiting Iran in 2016 and sentenced on espionage charges. Amnesty International recently called him a “pawn in a cruel political game” as Iran escalated “their threats to execute him in retaliation for their demands going unmet.”

The Jordanian army said Monday it is preparing for an escalation in confrontations with Iran-backed armed smugglers that have included deadly shootouts and the military downing drug drones since the beginning of the month.

"The Jordanian armed forces are facing a war along the borders, a drugs war and led by organizations supported by foreign parties. These Iranian militias are the most dangerous because they target Jordan's national security," senior army spokesperson Colonel Mustafa Hiari told state-owned Al Mamlaka television.

The skirmishes forced the country to change army rules of engagement along the border where it has given its military the authority to use overwhelming force.

On Sunday, four smugglers were killed in the latest shootout with the military as they tried to cross the rugged Syrian-Jordanian border.

At least 40 infiltrators have been killed and hundreds injured since the start of the year, mostly nomads employed by Iran-linked militias who hold sway in southern Syria.

Domestic consumption in Jordan has risen sharply in the past three years, during which the country has become a regional transit route for addictive pills to the oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, mainly the Syrian-made cheap amphetamine Captagon.

Last week, Jordan’s King Abdullah expressed concern about Iran and its proxies filling a vacuum left by Russians in southern Syria, warning that this could lead to issues along the borders.

The fighter jet crashed Tuesday morning at the Anarak training site located at the edge of Iran’s central desert of Dasht-e Kavir, some 200 kilometers east of the city of Esfahan.

Esfahan province's deputy governor Mohammad-Reza Jannessari said the aircraft was on a training mission.

The two killed pilots were identified as Lieutenant Colonel Qasem Zamani and First Lieutenant Mohammad Javad Baay from Esfahan’s tactical air base.

The Army’s public relations manager in the region, Colonel Mohammadi, told ISNA that the accident happened due to a technical problem, adding that further investigations are also underway.

Iran’s F-7 fighters are believed to have been modeled after China’s jet Chengdu J-7, whose third-generation export version is called F-7 and is considered a copy of the Soviet-era MiG-21. Beijing built the aircraft for export to countries including Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and North Korea. Iran has long been using the aircraft for training.

Iran’s air force has an assortment of Russian and US-made military aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution which are not considered to be in optimal condition as decades of Western sanctions have made it hard to maintain the aging fleet.

In February, an Iranian F-5 fighter jet crashed into a soccer stadium in the northwest city of Tabriz, killing a civilian and its two pilots.

Four years ago, another F-7 similarly crashed near Esfahan during an aerial exercise due to what was later described as a technical problem.

According to a shipping report seen by Reuters on Monday and vessel tracking data, Iran-flagged Suezmax tanker Silvia I, owned and operated by National Iranian Tanker Company, arrived on Sunday to an anchorage area near Venezuela's Amuay port.

The vessel departed in early April from Khor Fakkan, on the Gulf of Oman, and switched off its transponder when navigating near the Cape of Good Hope towards the Atlantic Ocean, according to Refinitiv Eikon monitoring data.

Weeks later, the vessel was seen in satellite pictures close to Venezuela's largest port, the Jose terminal, according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.

Iran and Venezuela, which have recently expanded a swap agreement signed last year, have increased the supply of Iranian heavy crude to Venezuela's El Palito refinery and Paraguana Refining Center (CRP).

Despite potential oil market competition, Iranian firms are planning to revamp Venezuela’s largest oil refinery in a deal that would deepen an energy relationship which has become a lifeline for Venezuela’s dilapidated oil industry amid a crisis caused by decades of mismanagement and lack of investments.

However, Iran’s Sharq newspaper reported on Sunday that Iran’s energy dealings with its South American ally have backfired, as Venezuela’s discounted oil exports have increased potentially taking market share from Iran.

Both countries are under American sanctions and try to sell their oil by illicit shipments mostly to China, which has increased its purchases since early 2021. Iranians do not hide that China is buying their oil, but the quantity and price remain a state secret.

According to the latest annual report by the Amnesty International published on Tuesday, executions surged 20 percent in 2021 led by China and Iran while the number of death sentences handed down increased by 40 percent.

At least 579 people were killed by states across 18 countries while at least 2,052 were given a death sentence. The figures do not include China, North Korea and Vietnam, where thousands are thought to be executed or sentenced to death each year secretly.

“The increase in executions was primarily driven by rises in the yearly figure for Iran (from at least 246 in 2020 to at least 314 in 2021, a 28-percent increase), which was the highest figure on record since 2017,” the report said.

“The spike in Iran appeared particularly for executions of people convicted of drug-related offences (132), which represented 42 percent of the total and constituted a more than five-fold rise from 2020” -- a flagrant violation of international law which prohibits use of the death penalty for crimes other than those involving intentional killing, the rights group said.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia more than doubled its number of executions, a grim trend that continued in 2022 with the execution of 81 people in a single day in March.

According to figures compiled by two advocacy groups -- Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Paris-based Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort or ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty) -- the number of executions in Iran doubled in the second half of 2021, around the time when President Ebrahim Raisi took office.