As the Iranian regime strives to keep hold of the control it has over the Iranian people, there is a wave of executions going on there to intimidate the people and keep them from rising up. Only time will tell if this strategy works to keep power out of the hands of Iranians that want so badly to be free from the crushing weight of the Islamic Republic, and to see the fullness of Persian culture restored.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have unleashed an “execution binge” with an average rate of one person hanged every eight hours since the beginning of the year, a rights group monitoring the Islamic Republic said Sunday.

“The Iranian Judiciary is on an execution binge orchestrated by the intelligence and security agencies,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

A statement by the New York-based group said at least 47 prisoners have been hanged since Jan. 1, including a reported Kurdish activist accused of fighting against the state. It said other jailed Kurds also are at risk of facing the gallows for alleged links to a groups battling for greater rights for Iran’s Kurdish minority.

Most of the others executed were convicted of violent crimes such as murder.

2 convicted murderers, Majid Kavousifar, 28 and Hossein Kavousifar, 24 seen publicly hanged in Tehran in 2007.

The group said the actual number of people put to death this year could be higher because Iranian authorities may not make public all executions.

Rights groups and media reports say at least 179 people were executed in Iran last year.  source: AP

The increase in executions by Iranian authorities is widely seen as a desperate attempt by the regime to cling to their grip on power, which was severely shaken by the uprisings that took place after the suspected rigged presidential election of 2009.

Arash Rahmani Pour, a member of the monarchist group Tondar (the Kingdom Assembly of Iran), and a post election rioter, was hanged in January 2010. He was convicted of being Mohareb (an enemy of God).

“The regime lacks confidence that it can appeal to or persuade people any longer, so it resorts instead to beating or killing them, or burying them in cells. Many such regimes can survive decades, but few have survived generations.” National Review Online