Free Republic

The Netherlands accused Iran yesterday of not meeting normal standards of civilised behaviour for not allowing relatives to bury a Dutch-Iranian woman executed last month, and recalled its ambassador to Iran. Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said the Dutch ambassador to Tehran was being recalled in protest at the case of 45-year-old Zahra Bahrami, who Iran said it hanged in Tehran on January 29 for drug smuggling. Instead of the normal procedure of handing over the body to family members for burial, Bahrami’s remains were taken 400km from Tehran and interred with no relatives present.

The Teheran regime has hanged 66 individuals since the end of 2010, according to France 24 International News. Among them was a 46-year-old Iranian-born, Dutch national Sahra Bahrami, who was hung on January 29 on drug-smuggling charges. Holland's Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime," according to Agence France Presse. Bahrami's sister dismissed the Iranian charges, which she contended were fabricated. "She doesn't even smoke cigarettes, let alone possessing drugs. How could someone who participates in election gatherings and endangers her life, engage in such actions against her country?" she is quoted as...

Zahra Bahrami, the Dutch-Iranian woman who was hanged in Iran on Saturday for drug trafficking and the possession of drugs had also been convicted on drug charges in the Netherlands. The Dutch current affairs TV programme Nieuwsuur reported on Monday night that documents in its possession show that Bahrami was sentenced to three years for attempting to smuggle 16 kilos of cocaine from the Caribbean to the Netherlands. In 2007, she was convicted for forging a passport. In the programme, Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said that the new information does not cast a different light on the case. He said...