Spain to Join South Africa’s Case at Top UN Court Accusing Israel of Genocide

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares. dpa
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares. dpa
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Spain to Join South Africa’s Case at Top UN Court Accusing Israel of Genocide

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares. dpa
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares. dpa

Spain will ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced Thursday.

“We take the decision because of the ongoing military operation in Gaza,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in Madrid. “We want peace to return to Gaza and the Middle East, and for that to happen we must all support the court.”

Spain is the first European country to take the step after South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice late last year. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza.
Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians have already requested to join the case currently being heard at the court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied.

Spain’s request to join the case is the latest move by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to support peacemaking efforts in Gaza.
Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state on May 28 in a coordinated effort by the three Western European nations to add international pressure on Israel. Slovenia, a European Union member along with Spain and Ireland, followed suit and recognized the Palestinian state this week.



Iran Executed 975 People in 'Horrifying' 2024 Escalation, Rights Groups Say

Executions in Iran have surged in recent years - AFP
Executions in Iran have surged in recent years - AFP
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Iran Executed 975 People in 'Horrifying' 2024 Escalation, Rights Groups Say

Executions in Iran have surged in recent years - AFP
Executions in Iran have surged in recent years - AFP

Iran executed at least 975 people last year in a "horrifying escalation" of its use of capital punishment, two human rights groups said on Thursday.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and French group Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said the figure was the highest since IHR began recording executions in Iran in 2008.

The figure "reveals a horrifying escalation in the use of the death penalty by the Islamic republic in 2024," they said in a joint report, accusing Iran of using the death penalty as a "central tool of political oppression".

"These executions are part of the Iran's war against its own people to maintain its grip on power," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said, AFP reported.

"Five people were executed on average every single day in the last three months of the year as the threat of war between Iran and Israel escalated."

Last year's figure represented a 17 percent increase on the 834 executions recorded in 2023, the report said.

Of the 975 people executed, four people were hanged in public and 31 were women, also the highest figure for the past 17 years.

 

- Executions over protests -

 

Human rights groups, who say that Iran is the world's most prolific executioner after China, accuse the authorities of using the death penalty to sow fear among the public, particularly after nationwide protests broke out in 2022.

Capital punishment remains a key pillar of the sharia-based judicial system established after the 1979 revolution ousted the Western-backed shah.

Crimes punishable by death include murder, rape and drugs offences but also more vaguely worded charges like "corruption on earth" and "rebellion" which activists say are used against dissidents.

In recent years, executions have been carried out by hanging, mostly in prison yards but occasionally in public, though other methods remain on the statute books.

Two of last year's executions were in connection with the nationwide protests that erupted in September 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman arrested for an alleged breach of Iran's mandatory dress code.

Mohammad Ghobadlu, 23, was executed in January 2024 on charges of killing a police officer with a car during a protest in October 2022. Human rights groups have charged that his trial was deeply flawed, with judges ignoring evidence presented by the defense that he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Gholamreza Rasaei, 34, was executed in secret in August on charges of killing a Revolutionary Guard during a 2022 protest. Activists said his confession had been obtained by torture.

The rights groups said there was evidence Iran might have carried out more executions last year that they were unable to confirm for their report.

They said there were reports of an additional 39 executions in 2024 that they had been unable to corroborate through second sources.

Already this year, Iran has carried out at least 121 executions, according to IHR's count.