Iran’s former Minister of Roads & Urban Development was sentenced to lashes for “publishing lies”.
According to the state-run Tasnim News Agency, 64-year-old Abbas Akhoundi was sentenced to 3 months of prison and 60 lashes by the Tehran Appeals Court. Akhoundi was the Minister of Roads and Urban Development from 2013 to 2018 under Hassan Rouhani’s presidency.
This is the third case of flogging sentences in the month of August.
On August 4, Iran’s Criminal Court sentenced three political prisoners to a total of 150 lashes and nine months of prison in Urmia, northwestern Iran. The three men were identified as Nayeb Hajizadeh Yongjeh, Keyhan Mokaram Anbi, and Nayeb Askari.
On August 5, a media activist was sentenced to prison and lashes for “defaming” local officials in western Iran. Morteza Haghbayan was sentenced to two years and six months of prison, 90 lashes, and a 10 million toman fine (around 390 USD) for “defaming officials in Kurdistan Province and publishing government documents”.
Iran’s use of degrading punishments and torture
The Iranian regime is one of the few states that still uses degrading punishments, even though all international civil and political rights conventions have prohibited the use of inhumane punishments such as execution and flogging.
Flogging is regularly handed out by the regime to its political opponents including protesters, and dissidents.
More than 100 “offenses” are punishable by flogging under Iranian law. The offenses include theft, assault, vandalism, defamation, extramarital relationships, and fraud. They also cover acts that should not be criminalized, such as adultery, intimate relationships between unmarried men and women, “breach of public morals” and consensual same-sex sexual relations.
Source » irannewswire