Urgent Action: Three Prisoners at Risk of Execution (Iran: UA 21.20)

Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi have been sentenced to death in connection with acts of arson that took place during protests in November 2019. Their trial was grossly unfair. They were denied access to lawyers during the investigation phase and say they were tortured. Amirhossein Moradi says he was coerced into giving a “confession” that was broadcast on state television and used as evidence to convict them.

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Dear Mr Raisi, Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi are at risk of execution after Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran convicted them of several charges including “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and sentenced them to death. On 18 February 2020, during his weekly press conference, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson accused them of being “riot leaders” who had “set fire to banks and petrol stations [during the nationwide protests in November 2019] and had filmed their criminal acts and sent the videos to foreign media”. They were also sentenced to between 11 and 16 years in prison and flogging on charges including “armed robbery”, which were related to separate incidents, according to an informed source. Their lawyers received the verdict in mid-February 2020. Amirhossein Moradi, 25, was arrested on 19 November 2019 and held for a week in a ministry of intelligence detention center in Tehran before being transferred to Tehran’s Evin prison for a month. He was held in prolonged solitary confinement and interrogated without a lawyer present. He has said that he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including through beatings, electric shock treatment and an interrogator standing on his chest. He has said he only “confessed” after his interrogators promised to provide him with medical treatment for the injuries he sustained, which they later refused. Mohammad Rajabi, 25, and Saeed Tamjidi, 27, were arrested on 28 December 2019 and held initially in a ministry of intelligence detention center in Tehran. They have also said they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including through being kicked, beaten with batons and hung upside down while repeatedly beaten on their legs and feet. All were subjected to enforced disappearance for weeks after their arrests and denied access to a lawyer during the investigation phase of their case. The three men are currently imprisoned in Fashafouyeh prison. I urge you to quash the death sentences of Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi and order a fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty. Please give them access to their families and lawyers and ensure that their torture allegations are investigated and those suspected of responsibility brought to justice in fair trials. Take measures to ensure “confessions” allegedly obtained under torture and other ill-treatment are not produced, broadcast or used as evidence in court and immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. Yours sincerely, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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