![\"Iran-execution-400nc\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/08\/Iran-execution-400nc.jpg\" "\\"At")
\n‘You’re too late’ Heartbreak of families who miss final goodbye before mass execution<\/strong><\/p>\n FAMILIES preparing to say a final farewell ahead of a mass execution were told they were too late and their loved ones were already dead by prison officials.<\/p>\n By KATIE MANSFIELD<\/p>\n PUBLISHED: 20:45, Tue, Aug 2, 2016 | UPDATED: 20:54, Tue, Aug 2, 2016<\/p>\n Relatives of prisoners were told this morning to visit one last time but when they arrived they were told the inmates had already been hanged.<\/p>\n Instead of saying goodbye, the families were told to go to the morgue to collect the bodies.<\/p>\n The mass execution took place at Gohardasht Prison in Iran this morning, with at least 20 Sunni inmates hanged.<\/p>\n Gohardasht Prison has declared a state of emergency and it’s believed the execution was brought forward in order to avoid protests.<\/p>\n The mass execution has been slammed by the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), who are fighting for more human rights in the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n Shahin Gobadi, of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “There’s a long precedent by the regime in first executing prisoners and then informing their families.<\/p>\n “One explanation for this is that the regime is afraid of a public backlash and protests outside the prison by the families to halt the executions.<\/p>\n “It is particularly cruel as none of the mothers and fathers managed to say goodbye to their loved ones.”<\/p>\n Some of the bodies were hastily buried in the Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery.<\/p>\n The prisoners had been moved by security forces hours earlier with reports of inmates hands and feet being chained and their mouths taped shut and heads covered with bags.<\/p>\n It’s believed they were moved to an undisclosed location ahead of the mass execution.<\/p>\n Prison authorities cut off the building’s phone lines and put inmates not on death row on lockdown during the killings.<\/p>\n Maryam Rajavi the Iranian Resistance’s President-elect, said the execution was “an appalling crime against humanity.”<\/p>\n The hangings come during the 28th anniversary of the 1988 executions which thousands of prisoners executed in a series of state-sanctioned killings over a five month period.<\/p>\n Shahram Ahmadi is among the Sunni prisoners executed.<\/p>\n
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