Amnesty calls on Iran to disclose fate of hundreds of detained Ahwazi Arabs

Amnesty International is calling on Iran to immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of hundreds of members of the Ahwazi Arab ethnic minority being held incommunicado after reports suggested some have been executed in secret.

Unconfirmed reports on Sunday suggested that Iran may have executed more than 22 people, accusing them of being behind the ISIS-claimed attack on a military parade in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahwaz last October.

“If confirmed, the secret executions of these men would be not only a crime under international law but also an abhorrent violation of their right to life and a complete mockery of justice, even by the shocking standards of Iran’s judicial system,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“It is difficult to imagine that these individuals could have received a fair trial within merely a few weeks of their arrests, let alone had the opportunity to appeal death sentences,” Luther added.

A relative of the victims said the Revolutionary Court summoned some of the families of those who were reportedly executed and handed them death warrants, without any information about the corpses, and warned them not to hold funerals or risk prosecution.

Human rights activists say the Iranian authorities used the attack that took place last October as an opportunity to attack civil society activists and intellectuals interested in the national rights of Arabs in southern Iran.