More than 400 people executed in Iran this year: UN experts
Iran executes more people per year than any other nation except China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International
Updated 02 September 2024
AFP
GENEVA: UN experts voiced alarm Monday at a surge in executions in Iran last month that pushed the total in the country so far this year to over 400.
At least 81 people were put to death in Iran in August alone, significantly more than the 45 reported in July, a group of 11 independent United Nations rights experts said in a statement.
The reported number of executions since the start of 2024 rose above 400, including those of 15 women, they said.
“We are deeply concerned by this sharp rise in executions,” said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
Iran executes more people per year than any other nation except China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.
The UN experts, including the special rapporteurs on the rights situation in Iran and on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, said 41 of the executions last month had been of people convicted of drug offenses.
“Executions for drug offenses violate international standards,” they said.
The experts lamented a substantial rise in executions for drug offenses in Iran since 2021, with more than 400 drug-related executions carried out last year alone.
They also said they had received reports indicating that death penalty trials in Iran often fail to meet due-process guarantees.
They pointed to the case of Reza Rasaei, a Kurdish protester, who was executed on August 6 for the murder of an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps member at an event where he had brandished a sign reading: “Women, Life, Freedom.”
His conviction was based on a confession reportedly obtained through torture, and despite co-defendants retracting their testimonies implicating him in the murder and forensic evidence challenging his involvement, the experts said.
“Reports of serious violations of fair trial and due process rights mean that the death penalty as it is currently practiced in the Islamic Republic of Iran amounts to unlawful execution,” they said.
The experts said they were “extremely concerned that innocent individuals may have been executed” and called for a halt to executions.
Kingdom’s security ‘red line’ for Egypt, says Cairo
Updated 21 sec ago
Reuters
CAIRO: Egypt condemned on Saturday as “irresponsible” statements by Israeli officials suggesting establishing a Palestinian state on Saudi territory, according to a statement by Egypt's foreign ministry.
The foreign ministry said it considered the suggestion a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty”, adding that the Kingdom's security was a “red line for Egypt”.
Head of UN chemical weapons watchdog to meet Syrian leader: authorities
The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation
Updated 08 February 2025
AFP
DAMASCUS: The head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog will meet Syria’s new leader Saturday, in a first visit since the ouster of Bashar Assad, who was repeatedly accused of using such weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war.
“We will broadcast the President of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmad Al-Sharaa and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad Al-Shaibani receiving a delegation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),” an official Syrian Telegram channel said in a statement.
The statement said the delegation was headed by OPCW chief Fernanado Arias.
In 2013, Syria agreed to join the OPCW shortly after a suspected chemical gas attack killed more than 1,000 people near Damascus.
It handed over its declared stockpile for destruction, but the OPCW has always been concerned that the declaration made by Damascus was incomplete and that more weapons remained.
Assad’s government denied using chemical weapons.
But in 2014, the OPCW set up what it called a “fact-finding mission” to investigate chemical weapons use in Syria, subsequently issuing 21 reports covering 74 instances of alleged chemical weapons use.
Investigators concluded that chemical weapons were used or likely used in 20 instances.
Hamas frees three Israeli hostages in fifth Gaza exchange
Bus carrying released Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s Ofer prison has arrived in the occupied West Bank
Updated 4 min 57 sec ago
AFP
DEIR EL-BALAH, Palestinian Territories: Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday, the fifth group freed under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, with Israel condemning their “cruel” handover and worrying physical appearance.
Israel’s prison service confirmed it had released 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday during the fifth exchange of the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
It said in a statement that “183 terrorists were transferred from several prisons across the country”, before they “were released” to the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.
The fifth exchange since the truce took effect last month comes as negotiations are set to begin on a more permanent end to the war.
It came after President Donald Trump floated a proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants, sparking global outrage.
Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were all seized by militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the 15-month war, “crossed the border into Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said.
Jubilant crowds in Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv cheered as they watched live footage of the three hostages, flanked by masked gunmen, brought on stage in Deir El-Balah before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
But the joy of their release was quickly overtaken by concern for their condition, with all three appearing thin and pale.
The choreographed handover included forced statements from the three on stage, in which they stated support for finalizing the next phases of the Israel-Hamas truce.
Palestinians gather around a stage being prepared ahead of the hand over to the Red Cross of three Israeli hostages by Hamas in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip on Feb. 8, 2025. (AP)
“The disturbing images... serve as yet another stark and painful evidence that leaves no room for doubt – there is no time to waste for the hostages! We must get them all out,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose dejected-looking image appeared on a banner at the Deir El-Balah handover site, said that the images out of Gaza were “shocking.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog denounced the treatment of the hostages who were paraded on stage, calling it “a crime against humanity.”
“The whole world must look directly at Ohad, Or, and Eli – returning after 491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained – being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle by vile murderers,” Herzog said on X.
Sharabi, 52, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife and their two daughters when militants stormed it.
The armed men shot their dog, before locking the family in their safe room and setting it on fire. The bodies of his wife and two daughters were later identified.
Ben Ami, who has dual Israeli-German citizenship, turned 56 in captivity. He was abducted from his home in Beeri along with his wife, who was released during the war’s first truce in November 2023.
Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where gunmen murdered his wife.
Former hostage Yarden Bibas, who was freed last week by Hamas militants in Gaza, on Friday urged Netanyahu to help bring back his wife and two children from the Palestinian territory.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’m now addressing you with my own words... bring my family back, bring my friends back, bring everyone home,” Bibas said in his first public message following his release.
Hamas previously said his wife Shiri and his two sons Ariel and Kfir – the youngest hostages – were dead, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce, even as Trump’s comments sparked backlash across the Middle East and beyond.
“An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home,” the Israeli campaign group said in a statement.
“Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed – until the very last one,” it added.
Palestinian militants have so far freed 21 hostages in exchange for hundreds of mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.
The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 11 more hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.
Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.
Netanyahu’s office said that after Saturday’s swap, an Israeli delegation will head to Doha for further talks.
The second phase aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war.
During their October 2023 attack, militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Seventy-three remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 47,583 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the Gaza ceasefire
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza
Updated 08 February 2025
AFP
GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s blocking of heavy machinery entering Gaza to clear rubble caused by war was affecting efforts to extract the bodies of hostages.
“Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tonnes of rubble ... will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages),” said Salama Marouf, spokesman for Hamas’s media office in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, including key items such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery for clearing rubble.
The Israeli government and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, have rejected the accusation.
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Hamas’ armed wing released the names of three captives it said would be freed on Saturday in a fifth hostage-prisoner swap as part of an ongoing agreement with Israel.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal for the prisoner exchange, the (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release” the three hostages, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing, said on Telegram.
US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel
Updated 08 February 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: The State Department has formally told Congress that it plans to sell more than $7 billion in weapons to Israel, including thousands of bombs and missiles, just two days after President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The massive arms sale comes as a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas holds, even as Trump continues to tout his widely criticized proposal to move all Palestinians from Gaza and redevelop it as an international travel destination.
The sale is another step in Trump’s effort to bolster Israel’s weapons stocks. In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The Biden administration had paused a shipment of the bombs over concerns about civilian casualties, particularly during an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Trump told reporters that he released them to Israel, “because they bought them.”
According to the State Department, two separate sales were sent to Congress on Friday. One is for $6.75 billion in an array of munitions, guidance kits and other related equipment. It includes 166 small diameter bombs, 2,800 500-pound bombs, and thousands of guidance kits, fuzes and other bomb components and support equipment. Those deliveries would begin this year.
The other arms package is for 3,000 Hellfire missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $660 million. Deliveries of the missiles are expected to begin in 2028.
