IRAN. GOVERNMENT DENIES EXECUTING POLITICAL PRISONERS

Iran's justice minister rejected an accusation that the Islamic regime was executing political prisoners and dismissed such concerns as "sheer lies".
"The execution of political prisoners is a sheer lie. They say terrorists, bombers and murderers are political prisoners, but they have to rethink," Jamal Karimi-Rad told reporters.
An Iranian rights group headed by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi had protested in February at the hanging of Hojat Zamani -- a member of the outlawed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen.
"Issuing the death sentence, which had been stalled for a long time for political prisoners, has been carried out for at least one person," the Defenders of Human Rights Centre said in a statement.
But Karimi-Rad described Zamani as a member of a banned armed group responsible for killing three people in a 1998 bombing.