Iran’s Campaign of Judicial Murder

The Iranian regime has responded to this summer's election protests with show trials and now an increasing number of political executions. With this move, the mullahs have made it even harder for President Obama to continue his diplomatic outreach.

The mullahs are closing the doors both on President Obama and themselves - it's hard to see how a U.S. president can do diplomatic outreach in the middle of this.

In Iran, where there is precedent for executions to surge in the wake of a crisis, human rights groups said there was mounting evidence that the trend had emerged in response to the political tumult that followed the June presidential election. This month, a fifth person connected to the protests was sentenced to death.

In at least one instance, a Kurdish activist was hanged after the government added a new charge, raising concerns that cases with political overtones were drawing more serious penalties.

In the short period between the disputed June election and the inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August, 115 people were executed, according to statistics compiled by human rights groups from Iranian news agencies. Though the executions mostly involved violent criminals and drug dealers, the number and pace of the killings appeared to be sending a message to the opposition, said human rights groups and Iran experts.

“The regime never expected to see people demonstrate so openly since the elections,” said Hossein Askari, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “The executions are intended to frighten them. It is absolutely intended for that purpose.”

The executions have taken place amid rising criticism of Iran’s postelection human rights record. Former officials, intellectuals and journalists have received long prison sentences after brief televised trials, and some prisoners have said they were tortured, raped and sodomized by prison authorities.

So the options are steadily being reduced: those "crippling" sanctions the president keeps approaching - yet somehow never reaching - or else the final stark alternative: acquiescence in a nuclear weapon or acceptance of military action.