Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday lambasted the United States for its "Hollywood-style" policing practices, which he said cause insecurity. The leader of the Islamic republic said the behavior of the U.S. police toward black people is an example of "cruel power." According to Iran's state-run Press TV, Khamenei said the policing style advertised in Hollywood or elsewhere in Western societies "will not only fail to bring about security, but leads to more insecurity." The Iranian leader slammed police brutality against African-Americans in the U.S., saying the black minority is subjected to "oppression" and "humiliation" by police. Khamenei was addressing a group of senior Iranian police officers in Tehran. In a 2013 report by the United Nations, Iran was accused of executing prisoners, including juveniles, as well as arresting dissidents who are often tortured in jail, sometimes to death. In the twin reports issued in Geneva at the time, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N. special investigator on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, voiced concern at what they called an apparent rise in the frequency and gravity of abuses in Iran. "The secretary-general remains deeply troubled by reports of increasing numbers of executions, including of juvenile offenders and in public; continuing amputations and flogging; arbitrary arrest and detention; unfair trials, torture and ill-treatment; and severe restrictions targeting media professionals, human rights defenders, lawyers and opposition activities, as well as religious minorities," Ban reported. According to both reports, Iranian authorities should stop imposing the death penalty on juveniles, banned under international law. Shaheed voiced alarm at the escalating rate of executions in Iran and the use of capital punishment for offences that do not meet international standards for the most serious crimes. "This includes alcohol consumption, adultery and drug trafficking," he said. Some 297 executions were announced by the Tehran government last year, but the true number was closer to 500, he said. Drug-related crimes account for 80 percent of executions and smugglers are denied the right to appeal against the death penalty, Ban said. "There has been a dramatic spike in public executions in Iran," he said. Most executions took place at dawn in front of crowds.
