Amnesty International has identified 26 people, including athletes, rappers and doctors, whom they fear are facing possible execution amid nationwide protests in Iran.
The human rights organization shared with Newsweek details of those who have been arrested and charged as they claim that the people have been convicted in “sham” trials and been given no legal representation, which they say violated the most basic and fundamental guarantees of a fair trial.
Amnesty International has placed the at-risk people into three categories of severity of their situations. It also shared details about who 20 of the people are and what their purported crimes are, with the organization still trying to find out more details about the other six.
Here are the categories in which the cases fall:
Individuals who have been sentenced to death
Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh; Mahan Sadrat (Sedarat) Madani; Manouchehr Mehman Navaz; Mohammad Boroughani; Mohammad Ghobadlou; Saman Seydi (Yasin); Hamid Ghare Hasanlou; Mohammad Mehdi Karami; Sayed Mohammad Hosseini; Hossein Mohammadi; and an unnamed individual in Alborz province.
Individuals who have undergone trial on capital charges and are at risk of being sentenced to death or might already have been sentenced to death
At the time of writing, there was no publicly available information on the status of their cases.
They are Saeed Shirazi; Abolfazl Mehri Hossein Hajilou; and Mohsen Rezazadeh
Gharegholou.
Individuals who have been charged with capital offences and might be awaiting or undergoing trial
Akbar Ghafari; Toomaj Salehi; Ebarhim Rigi; Amir Nasr Azadani; Saleh Mirhashemi; Saeed Yaghoubi; Farzad (Farzin) Tahazadeh; Farhad Tahazadeh; Karvan Shahiparvaneh; Reza Eslamdoost; Hajar Hamidi and Shahram Marouf-Moula.
Amnesty International has reviewed official reports and statements, reports and propaganda videos by state media, publicly available information shared by relatives, lawyers and others impacted, testimony gathered from eyewitnesses including a former cellmate, audiovisual evidence including footage of hearings by Revolutionary Courts and other documents such as medical notes and casefile material.
The organization has urged Iranian authorities to immediately halt any plans to carry out executions, quash all convictions and death sentences, refrain from seeking further death sentences, ensure that anyone charged with a recognizable criminal offence is tried in proceedings meeting international fair trial standards without recourse to the death penalty, and establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.
Who has Iran sentenced to death?
Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh
Athlete Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh was sentenced to death in November over accusations of “tearing down highway railings and setting fire to rubbish cans and tires” with the aim of “disrupting peace and order and confronting the Islamic state.”
The court ruled that the accusations amounted to “enmity against God” (moharebeh).
Mahan Sadrat (Sedarat) Madani
Mahan Sadrat (Sedarat) Madani, a 22-year-old protester, has a death sentence over accusations of using a knife to attack an individual, setting a motorcycle on fire and damaging a mobile phone, which the court ruled amounted to “enmity against God” (moharabeh).
Mizan Online released CCTV footage that it alleged depicts Mahan Sadrat (Sedarat) Madani attacking another man with a knife and setting fire to a motorbike.
Amnesty International reviewed the video footage, which is grainy and of low quality, making it difficult to identify any person with reasonable certainty and there is no knife discernible in the video footage.
Manouchehr Mehman-Navaz
Manouchehr Mehman-Navaz has been sentenced to death for allegedly setting fire
to a state building during protests “with intent to confront the Islamic state.” The court ruled that this amounted to “enmity against God” (moharabeh) in a trial that Amnesty has claimed was an “unfair sham” and “bearing no resemblance to meaningful judicial proceedings.”
Mohammad Boroughani
Young protester Mohammad Boroughani has been sentenced to death for “enmity
against God” (moharebeh) after he allegedly wielded a machete, set fire to the governor’s building and injured a state agent.
Mohammad Ghobadlou
Mohammad Ghobadlou, 22, was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz). Amnesty has alleged that the authorities relied on torture-tainted “confessions” to find him guilty of running over police officials with a car, killing one and injuring others.
Saman Seydi (Yasin)
Rapper Saman Seydi (Yasin), from Iran’s persecuted Kurdish minority, was found guilty of shooting a pistol three times into the air during protests, which authorities said amounts to “enmity against God” (moharabeh).
Amnesty has fears that the confession was attained through torture including severe beatings and forced exposure to extreme cold.
Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou
Dr. Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou and his wife Farzaneh Ghare-Hasanlou were on their way to the funeral of a protester when they became stuck in traffic caused by protests in Karaj, Alborz province.
Amnesty has said that according to Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou’s brother, who lives outside Iran, the couple left their car to walk away from the traffic.
Moments later, they were caught up in the chaos of an incident that involved several people fatally assaulting an individual, whom the authorities have said was an agent of the paramilitary Basij force.
In a video footage of the incident released by state media, Farzaneh Ghare-Hasanlou is seen attempting to pull back a person to prevent him from harming the assault victim.
Amnesty said that authorities repeatedly tortured Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou to extract forced “confessions” from him, leading to his hospitalization with broken ribs and difficulties breathing.
He was convicted of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) in connection with the fatal assault of a Basiji agent.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami
Athlete Mohammad Mehdi Karami has been sentenced to death after being convicted of “corruption on earth” in connection with the fatal assault of a Basij agent during protests about a month earlier on November 3.
Amnesty said that on December 12, Mohammad Mehdi Karami’s father told a national new agency that the authorities had not allowed the family’s independently appointed lawyer access to his son’s case file.
He added that the court-appointed lawyer failed to respond to the family’s repeated calls and requests to provide them with the documents needed to appeal the verdict or even share the address of his office.
Seyed Mohammad Hosseini
Seyed Mohammad Hosseini was sentenced to death after being convicted of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e felarz) in connection with the fatal assault of a Basij agent during protests on November 3.
Hossein Mohammadi
Actor Hossein Mohammadi was sentenced to death after the authorities convicted him of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) in connection with the fatal assault of a Basij agent during protests on November 3.
Individuals who have undergone trials on capital charges and may be under sentences of death
Saeed Shirazi
Saeed Shirazi has been accused of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) through “widespread incitement and encouragement of people to commit crimes against national security” and “causing severe disruptions in [public] order” and authorities have sought the death penalty against him.
Abolfazl Mehri Hossein Hajilou
Abolfazl Mehri Hossein Hajilou has been accused of having set fire to 25 rubbish bins during protests that took place in Tehran province.
Under Note 1 to Article 675 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, acts of arson carried out with “intent to confront the Islamic government” must be punished as “enmity against God” (moharebeh), which means they may be punishable by death.
Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharagholou
Mohsen Rezazadeh Gharagholou was charged with “enmity against God” (moharebeh) through “participation in [acts of] arson against public property in order to cause disruption in public order and security,” “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,” “making explosives in the form of Molotov cocktails for [committing acts] against security,” and “throwing stones at police forces.”
Individuals charged with capital offenses and awaiting or undergoing trial
Akbar Ghafari
Akbar Ghafari has been charged with “enmity against god” (moharebeh) in connection with the death of a security agent.
Authorities arrested Akbar Ghafari after he sheltered protesters at his sister’s home in Tehran. Amnesty has said that according to a prisoner who was briefly detained alongside him in Evin prison, Akbar Ghafari, who is unable to read, was forced under torture to sign a statement, which he later discovered falsely incriminated him in the killing.
Toomaj Salehi
Rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province on October 31. The authorities have charged him with “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) in connection with critical music and social media posts, which denounced the unjust practices in Iran and called for freedom and human rights for the people of the country.
Ebrahim Rigi (Riki)
Ebrahim Rigi (Riki) is a 24-year-old man from the oppressed Baluchi minority and was arrested in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province on October 13.
According to Baluchi human rights defenders, the authorities have charged him with vague and broadly worded offences carrying the death penalty including “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) and/or “enmity against God” (moharabeh) for allegedly leading the protests in Zahedan.
Amir Nasr Azadani
Amir Nasr Azadani is a professional footballer and was arrested in Esfahan on November 18. The Iranian authorities have accused him and four other people of involvement in an “armed group” allegedly responsible for the death of three security officials during protests in Esfahan on November 16.
On December 11, the head of the department of justice in Esfahan stated that Azadani has been charged with “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi), which is punishable by the death penalty.
The official added that Azadi had joined “unlawful groups with the intention of disrupting national security and gathering and colluding to commit crimes against security” and said that these acts amount to “aiding enmity against God.”
Saleh Mirhashemi
Saleh Mirhashemi was also arrested in Esfahan in mid-November. The Iranian authorities have accused him along with Azadani of being involved in an “armed group” allegedly responsible for the death of three security officials during protests in Esfahan on November 16.
Saeed Yaghoubi
Saeed Yaghoubi was also arrested in Esfahan in mid-November for being part of an “armed group” allegedly responsible for the death of three security officials during protests in Esfahan on November 16.
Source » msn