Women raped, tortured and hanged to save son of Imam in Iran, may have been innocent

Written by A. M., News Team | 22 July 2012

On July 12, word spread that Safiyeh "Maryam" Gafuri had been hanged in a prison in Shiraz, Iran. Prior to her death, prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaie publicly called her innocent, but he and international human rights groups could not halt her execution. Maryam was sentenced to death under tribal law issued by judiciary authorities in Iran based on the Iranian Islamic Law. Below is Mostafaie's July 14 article about the incident, first posted by the Universal Tolerance Institute here.

Details of Illegal and Inhumane Execution of Safiyeh Gafuri
By: Mohammad Mostafaei and Noory Fakhry

Wednesday, Safiyeh Gafuri was arranged to be executed. She was asked from her solitary confinement that she had a meeting, she did not say goodbye to any of her friends. Attorney general of Shiraz, who insisted Safiyeh to be executed, ordered her execution.

Everything was ready for her execution, while she was severely crying, they took her to the gallows and at that moment for the first time she said; “I was not the murderer and it was the other person who was the main perpetrator and I was used as a tool. I was innocent and please listen to me”. She appealed so much that the authority in charge of execution changed his mind and stopped the execution.

Mr. Bahraini, responsible for execution, did not want to execute her. Because he knew that Safiyeh was not guilty. Safiyeh was returned to her solitary confinement. Mr. Bahraini explained all the events at the time of execution for his friends.

Despite, Mr. Bahraini did not want to execute her, but finally after many calls from authorities, the attorney general of Shiraz ordered again that she must be executed as soon as possible.

Mr. Bahraini emphasized that a new legal procedure is necessary for her execution, but he was threatened by legal authorities and Shiraz’s intelligence forces.

According to law when a convicted to death, in the time of execution would claim that another person is guilty not him/her, the legal authorities must stop the execution and must investigate the claim. But in this case nothing has done about this. In addition, in the time of execution, no doctor was present and no rituals were performed.

Thursday that is holiday in Iran Safiyeh was requested again. But, this time she never thought that she would be executed in the holiday. They took her to the place of execution, by seeing the rope she fainted. If a doctor was present there, he/she did not allow her execution, but after gaining conscious, two soldiers took her hands and brought her to the gallows and hanged her, a few moments later everything was dark and Safiyeh was gone.

Read the full story here.