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(8 April 2011) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called on the Iranian Judiciary to halt mass executions and inhumane conditions in Vakilabad Prison in Mashad, which an inmate detailed in a recent letter to the head of the Judiciary.

The Iranian Judiciary has done nothing to address the horrific situation at Valikabad despite international concerns culminating in a report by the United Nations Secretary General released on 14 March 2011.

“Vakilabad is a hell on earth, where inmates are subjected to sardine-like overcrowding, health threats, humiliations, and mass executions,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the Campaign.

“Conditions at Vakilabad and other prisons need to be on the agenda of the new UN special rapporteur and the High Commissioner for Human Rights,” he added.

In a letter to the Head of the Iranian Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, a copy of which has been received by the Campaign, Seyed Hashem Khastar, a prisoner of conscience who is currently serving time inside Vakilabad, provides details about the dreadful conditions of the prison.

Khastar describes conditions where the number of inmates inside the prison is now more than four times the normal capacity of the facility, and that prisoners are serving their sentences while deprived of the most basic living conditions. In his letter, Khastar compares the prison conditions with “Hitler’s Death Camps.”

Khastar, a Khorasan Te... >>>