IRAN: HUNDREDS RALLY IN TEHRAN IN PROTEST AGAINST DEATH PENALTY

April 9, 2017:

Hundreds of families of prisoners on death row, especially women, rallied on the morning in front of parliament, demanding the abolition of the death penalty. Demonstrators had come from Tehran, Isfahan, Fars, Lorestan, Yazd, Khorasan, Ilam, West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and Mazandaran provinces and carried banners reading: "No to execution", "Don't kill our children", "You are killing breadwinner's of the families", "Every Iranian raises their voice against the death sentence", "We demand the abolition of the death penalty", "The request of all Iranians is the abolition of the death penalty", and "Don't kill life".
The rally took place while the suppressive forces agents were deployed to the scene earlier, trying to prevent the formation of the protest by harassing and insulting families. To disperse the crowd, the mercenaries arrested a number of them and transferred them to an unknown location. To prevent spreading the news, Internet lines in the region were cut off. Consequently, a number of families went to regime's prosecutor office in the Behesht street.