Iranian inmates executed in alarming numbers after peacefully asking for reprieve

56 inmates were executed just last month.

Human rights advocates are rattled by the fact that prison authorities have executed about 34 inmates who asked for a reprieve peacefully. According to reports, there were 56 inmates killed by Iranian prison authorities just this May, after they confessed to their crimes under torture. The latest incident of human rights violations were carried out at the Ghezel Hasar, the country's largest prison.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - "Most of these prisoners are subjected to unfair trials and their death sentences have been issued based on forced confessions made under torture," said the spokesperson for the Iran Human Rights group, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, as cited in The Daily Mail.

In the report, it was expressed that the recently executed prisoners were all convicted of drug-related offenses which, under the Penal Code of Iran, is punishable by death through hanging, shooting or stoning.

After the 34 inmates gathered at the prison's yard asking Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for a reprieve, bringing handwritten banners, they were reportedly hung by the prison officials.

"The situation is very desperate. We don't know what to do. There are no international reactions. We call on the UN and the international community to take urgent actions to stop these mass executions," added Amiry-Moghaddam in a statement with the International Business Times.

He explained there are about 450 prisoners in the facility who have been executed just this year. Without fair trials and rampant mass executions, human rights advocates are alarmed over the administration's way of justice. There are more than 2,000 drug-offenders in the facility listed on death row.

"Honestly, what we did to end up in prison doesn't warrant death. The least they can do is give first time offenders a second chance so we may resume with our lives," said one of the inmates interviewed by the organization.

Amiry-Moghaddam also expressed that the silence of the international community on the issue poses a threat to the lives of the remaining prisoners.

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