Norway deeply deplores planned executions in Iran

“We call on Iran to stop in time and not go ahead with further executions tomorrow,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. “Norway is opposed to all forms of capital punishment. It is highly regrettable that Iran appears to be planning to execute 10 persons tomorrow,” the Foreign Minister continued. 

Norway is engaged in the fight to abolish capital punishment, both in international organisations and through active cooperation with human rights organisations and likeminded countries. We regularly raise the issue of capital punishment as a matter of principle with countries where it is practiced. We focus special attention on individual cases where we know that there are plans to carry out the death penalty in a particularly inhuman way or to execute minors, pregnant women or persons who cannot be deemed criminally responsible. In such cases Norway considers use of the death penalty to be a violation of international law. 

“There have been a number of such cases in Iran. In these cases we instruct our embassy in Tehran to verify the identity of those who are to be executed. In this particular case we find it necessary to react both to the number of executions and to the fact that they have been planned to coincide with a major holiday and will thus not attract attention in large parts of the world,” said Foreign Minister Støre. 

Last week Norway aligned itself with an EU declaration on the mass executions in Tehran’s Evin Prison on 26 November and other repeated violations of human rights that have taken place in Iran lately. 

The Government is concerned about the human rights situation in Iran in general.  Two days ago the Iranian authorities closed the Center for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran, The centre was established and headed by the Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. 

“Norway has again today been in touch with the French EU Presidency about the closure of Shirin Ebadi’s human rights centre in Tehran, and we will follow the situation of Ms Ebadi and other Iranian human rights activists in the time ahead,” said Mr Støre.