Secret Execution of an Armenian-Jewish Couple in Tehran Confirmed

The unconfirmed media reports of an Armenian-Jewish couple along with one woman and two other men secretly executed on Monday March 14, 2011, as was initially reported by Massis Post, were recently confirmed by the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that Varoujan and Kalimia Petrosian were hanged on March 14 at Evin Prison, a facility for political prisoners in northwest Iran. It identified Varoujan Petrosian, an Iranian of Armenian decent and his wife Mrs. Kalimia Petrosian, born in Jerusalem in 1956 to an Iranian-Jewish family. It is reported that both held U.S. citizenship.

The agency quoted sources within the Revolutionary Court, located inside the Evin prison, as confirming the executions, along with the three others who as of yet remain unidentified. The sources refused to provide any further details about the basis of the execution.

Reportedly, the official cause of Kalimia’s arrest was adultery. It is still unknown what the remaining prisoners were charged and executed for.

Michael Posner, the assistant Secretary of State for human rights, had not named the couple when he testified on May 11 at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iran’s human rights that an Armenian Christian and his wife a Jewish woman had been indeed executed in Iran for undisclosed reasons.