Dutch Woman Zahra Bahrami Hanged & Buried By Iran Security Forces: Report

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Rights activists say Iran's security forces have buried in secret a Dutch-Iranian woman who was hanged last month on drug charges.

The group Human Rights Activists says the body of 45-year-old Zahra Bahrami was buried in the north-central city of Semnan on Sunday.

The group's report, released Monday, claims Bahrami's daughter was told that the burial was done secretly to avoid the presence of Dutch diplomats or others.

The Dutch government froze official contacts with Iran last week to protest the execution.

Bahrami was convicted of possessing and selling drugs. She had been jailed since December 2009 after protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

Comments

[Starvin-Marvin]

06:59 AM on 02/10/2011

She wasn't arrested for drugs, she was a political prisoner, in a political prison.
She was convicted in the past in Holland for trafficking drugs. This history came out well for the Iranians, so they thought the international community would believe the story that she was hanged for possession of drugs. But we were not born yesterday.

[Magic 62]

08:23 AM on 02/10/2011

Since when Iranian regime cared about what the international community thinks about? Furthermore, this lady wasn't arrested in Holland for possession of little grass, she was arrested for carrying 16 kilos of coke, and arrested again for passport forgery. Now, if you think that this lady with history of trafficking hard drugs in large quantities was a peace activist, then you were born yesterday.

[Starvin-Marvin]

08:25 AM on 02/11/2011

I'm Dutch and here it's of course much bigger news. They get deeper into this story.
On this site you get only half of the information about the case. Holland has a big Iranian community, most of them refugees. They hate the regime. She trafficked drugs once, but now participated in the Ashura Protests. She was kept in the same prison as all political prisoners and not in the one with normal criminals. Also the Iranians gave the Netherlands 10 days to appeal, but after day 2 they got the message that she was killed. Her body is not given back to the family, but buried secretly somewhere in Iran. Something that they only do to political prisoners, normal criminals are always given back to the family after the death penalty.
The Iranian government has reached it's goal when I look at your comment...don't care because she was a stupid drug trafficker anyway.

[BrandyCCBC]

03:10 PM on 02/09/2011

I’m sure the woman was drug dealing, and if she had stopped the first time she had gotten caught, everything would be fine and she’d be alive, but either way that is not the issue. She was hanged for a crime that people in other places (namely the United States) get away with every day, and then as the Dutch Foreign Ministry says, her remains were treated very disrespectfully. Not that I support her actions, but I disapprove more willingly to the actions of the Iranian government. Whether your child is a drug dealer or not, you’d want them to be buried where you approve of and you’d want to be informed about it prior to last minute. Her punishment fit her trial in no way, and it was a completely unfair situation for her and her family. I base my opinion solely on the fact that I believe the United States, although corrupt, has fair punishments the majority of the time. May she rest in peace.

[marru g]

10:40 AM on 02/09/2011

VERY NICE STORY

http://tinyurl.com/6ehexwl

[ArjenBoatsma]

07:22 AM on 02/09/2011

The headline is misleading, this woman was a Dutch citizen under Dutch law, but because she was born in Iran, she was an Iranian citizen under Iranian law. She was apparently arrested and convicted for possession of illegal drugs in Iran. In the early 2000s, she had also been convicted for drugs trafficking in The Netherlands.
Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, once you're born Iranian, you'll always be an Iranian citizen, especially on Iranian soil, regardless of your passport. (For that matter, The Netherlands is rather difficult about dual citizenship as well.)

[QueenNzinga]

09:09 AM on 02/09/2011

Thanks for shedding some light on what really happened. This is not news if what you say is true.

[karim banned]

10:09 PM on 02/08/2011

Iran has over 6 millions drug addicts. Iran has right to fight this plight anyway she could.

Exactly why this is news in western media?

Why there is no outcry when tens on people are killed each day by Arab dictators, but when Iran execute a drug dealer, there is huge outrage in western media.

[twoyg2]

08:50 PM on 02/08/2011

In Iran they executed a drug smuggler, in the USA they execute people with the mental age of a child, in China they execute corrupt officials. The death penalty is state sponsored murder and should be condemned no matter where it happens.
Supporters of the death penalty might like to research the case of Timothy Evans who was executed on the 9th of March 1950 for the murder of his daugther. Three years later John Christie confessed to killing both Evans wife and daughter. To late of course for Evans, you cannot pardoned and release a dead man.
I would refer supporters of the death penalty also to the following website

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Killing someone is final, absolute but it is not justice unless we can come up with a foolproof method of proving guilt and not a panel of fallable humans who can be swayed by media, emotion and just plain lies by lawyers.
Finally the death penalty is an obscene reminder of just how unjust the world can be.

[TeeSC]

11:59 AM on 02/09/2011

I absolutely agree that it needs to be fool proof.  There is no question but that the death of an innocent person is horrendous.  But I cannot, in all honesty, deny that there are some situations/individuals who deserve the death penalty.  This isn't meant to specifically address this situation but we have no business trying to dictate what another country should or should not do to it's citizens who break the law.  Not until Bush, Cheney or Rumsfield are brought to justice.  Let's wash our own laundry before we start picking through someone else's. 

[JerryLevy]

07:09 PM on 02/08/2011

I was surprised about the open support for Iran last year when they rounded up the brave college kids demonstrating in the street for democracy. Now Iran has committed one of the many extra judicial executions of a woman and sure enough, right here on the HP is open support for the regime. So let me see if I have this straight, no matter how brutal and vicious the country is, if it hates the U.S. the people on the Huffington Post support it.

[Shomali]

10:36 PM on 02/08/2011

Although I don't agree with execution anywhere, particularly extrajudicial execution committed by the outlaw regime in Israel, this woman was convicted of International drug smuggling. She was a repeat offender. She was even convicted for drug smuggling in Netherlands in 2003 and sentenced to 3 years. So her guilt is unquestionable. Everything that happens in Iran turns into a political issue and all the Israeli amen corner come out of the wood work to do their work to demonize Iran. That is what it is all about and you know it.

[StCuthbert]

09:09 AM on 02/09/2011

Oh come on. If the US executed someone for drug smuggling you would be the first to protest.

[JerryLevy]

09:09 AM on 02/09/2011

Oh, OK, the thread is on the extra judicial killing of a person that your proclaim as being guilty of drug smuggling so your response is to demonize Israel which is the only Middle Eastern country not to have a death penalty. When you enter the hate zone, you lose all ability to reason.

[Magic 62]

05:54 PM on 02/08/2011

Iran is the transit route for 90% of global heroin trafficking thanks to being stuck next door to Afghanistan. Heroin production is way up after US invasion and it provides funding for the Taliban. Meanwhile, all that cheap heroin going through Iran has done major damage to Iranian youth. Right now, there are over 2 million heroin addicts in Iran. if it wasn't for Iran spending over a billion dollars/year fighting drug trafficking, accounting for over 80% of all the heroin recovered by all the police forces worldwide, there would be plenty more junkies in Europe and North America. But thanks to US/Israel, international drug enforcement assistance is attached to package of incentive if Iran gives up its nuclear program.

[JerryLevy]

07:06 PM on 02/08/2011

Iran extra judicially executes a Dutch woman and this guy blames Israel

[Shomali]

10:38 PM on 02/08/2011

She was found guilty. Convicted. She was a repeat offender. She was even convicted for drug smuggling in 2003 in netherlands and sentenced to three years there.

[Magic 62]

11:31 PM on 02/08/2011

I blame US too, and since you know all about extra judicially and extra territorial executes committed by Israel, you should know better. But then again, we both know why you are here.

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

01:34 PM on 02/08/2011

.........hung, not hanged

[YankeeCanuck]

02:15 PM on 02/08/2011

Hanged is the proper usage.

[jl4141]

03:03 PM on 02/08/2011

She was hanged. I am hung.

[courtb]

12:14 PM on 02/11/2011

Haha, that really made me laugh. Maybe I'm a 15 year old child at heart

[mamacat]

12:49 PM on 02/08/2011

Iran and Texas - they love to execute prisoners.

[albiecoyote]

05:20 PM on 02/08/2011

Sorry but this was a drug charge mamacat......not punishable by death in Texas.
You lose cred when you exaggerate.

[Magic 62]

05:53 PM on 02/08/2011

If Texas was sitting next to Afghanistan and served as transit route for 90% of global heroin, I have feeling that Texas too would change the law.

[Cyrus Trance]

02:02 AM on 02/09/2011

Nice embellishment.

[Erewhon7]

12:06 PM on 02/08/2011

Wherever you find Islamist fanatics you find paranoia and persecution complex.
In some ways it is impossible to separate the two, one feeds the other.

[WonderfulElena]

10:04 AM on 02/08/2011

hopefully people will finally learn, some countries dont tolerate drug dealing, so just stop doing it

[StuffMoreStuff]

10:40 AM on 02/08/2011

Yeh, killin em, learns um good, boi!

[Magic 62]

02:30 PM on 02/08/2011

exactly.

[Cyrus Trance]

02:02 AM on 02/09/2011

You tell um mom.

[ken607]

08:23 AM on 02/08/2011

all the more reason NOT to got to IRAN

[Erewhon7]

12:04 PM on 02/08/2011

And embargo, sanction and ridicule their criminal leadership.
Oh,wait, that's already being done.

[StuffMoreStuff]

12:33 PM on 02/08/2011

They got some pretty cook archeological stuff over there though.

[StuffMoreStuff]

04:30 PM on 02/08/2011

cool, it what that should have said, not cook.

[eva belle]

02:36 AM on 02/08/2011

Filthy! As if they themselves are with no sin, these people disgust me.

[Magic 62]

10:41 PM on 02/07/2011

Ms. Bahrami was convicted of smuggling hard drugs at huge quantities before. According to research by Nieuwsuur. In 2003 she was caught with nearly 16 kilos of cocaine in her luggage.

http://nieuwsuur.nl/onderwerp/215523-geexecuteerde-bahrami-eerder-veroordeeld.html

[Wozzeck]

11:20 PM on 02/07/2011

They were probably just samples or for personal consumption.

[cdncommentator]

10:43 AM on 02/08/2011

So, what? Should she have been killed for that? Prison not enough?

Honestly, the death penalty is a human rights abuse. That goes for the US and Iran as well.
Civilized countries don't execute criminals - because sometimes the justice system gets it wrong. And in Iran, where justice is meted out in private without proper public scrutiny, the issue is all the more severe.

Shame on Iran.