Death row prisoners from Iran’s Baluchi ethnic minority, Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i, are at risk of execution. They have been subjected to serious human rights violations including enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment to extract “confessions” used to convict and sentence them to death in unfair trials. Since mid-December 2020, the Iranian authorities have executed 18 Baluchi men, raising fears that Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i may be executed imminently.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Head of judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi
c/o H.E. Majid Takht Ravanchi
Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran
622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212 687-2020 I Fax: 212 867 7086
Email:
[email protected]
Twitter:
@Iran_UN
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Mr Raisi,
I am writing to express concern about two death row prisoners from the Baluchi ethnic minority who are at risk of execution following grossly unfair trials. Hamed Rigi, who is on death row in Zahedan prison, Sistan and Baluchestan province, was sentenced to death in relation to an armed clash with anti-narcotics security forces in 2017 in Sistan and Baluchestan province in which several members of the security forces were killed. His two brothers, Behnam Rigi and Shoaib Rigi, who were sentenced to death in the same case, were executed on 19 December 2020, raising fears that he may also be executed soon. Mehran Naru’i, on death row in Dastgerd prison in Esfahan province, is also at risk of execution. Amnesty International understands that he was sentenced to death about four years ago for drug-related offenses. Another Baluchi prisoner, Anvar Naru’i, who was sentenced to death in the same case, was executed in Dastgerd prison on 28 January 2021.
According to information available to Amnesty International, following their arrests, both men were subjected to enforced disappearance and torture to extract “confessions”. Their statements were unlawfully admitted as evidence by the judges presiding over their criminal proceedings, even though the men retracted them in court and said they had been made under torture. Their forced “confessions” were used to issue convictions against them. Since 1 December 2020, at least 52 executions have taken place in Iran, with over a third of them Baluchi prisoners. According to information obtained by Amnesty International, at least 18 Baluchi men have been executed since 19 December 2020. The alarming escalation in executions of Baluchi prisoners raises serious concerns that the authorities are using the death penalty in a calculated campaign to sow fear among Baluchis and other ethnic minorities.
I ask you to immediately stop any plans to execute Hamed Rigi and Mehran Naru’i. Their convictions and death sentences must be quashed, and they must be granted fair retrials without recourse to the death penalty. They should receive regular access to their families and lawyers of their own choosing. I call on you to establish an official moratorium on executions.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
