At least eight people arrested during nationwide protests in January have already been sentenced to death, while a further 22 are undergoing what Amnesty International describes as “expedited torture-tainted grossly unfair trials” over their alleged involvement in the demonstrations, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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In a report released on Friday, Amnesty has accused the Iranian government of “serious violations” in the legal procedures of those convicted of capital crimes, such as “the right to a fair trial, including denial of access to lawyers during the investigation phase, and refusal to recognise independent legal counsel appointed by families for trial”.
At least eight of the cases of convicted individuals have been sentenced to death within weeks of their arrests.
Although 30 people have been identified in Friday’s report as being at imminent risk of facing the death penalty, the global rights group warns that the real number of those at risk “is much higher”, accusing Iranian authorities of threatening families of the detainees against speaking out about their convictions.
The Amnesty statement highlighted multiple cases of young adults, including two underage boys, believed to have been subjected to unjust trials and forced confessions.
18-year-old Saleh Mohammadi was arrested by a criminal court in Qom and sentenced to death on 4 February, less than three weeks after his arrest in connection with the death of a security agent.
The verdict shows how Mohammadi had retracted his “confessions” in court, saying that they had been extracted under torture. This was dismissed by the court without calling for an inquiry, despite a source telling Amnesty that he had sustained hand fractures as a result of beatings.
Mohammad Amin Biglari, a 19-year-old, was sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh, or enmity against God – a state-sanctioned legal charge that rights groups argue is used by authorities to suppress political opposition.
According to Amnesty, Biglari was incommunicado for weeks before being transferred to a prison in Alborz and appointed a lawyer by the state during a “fast-tracked trial based on forced confessions”, alleging he was involved in the setting on fire of a Basij base in early January.
He has been denied independent lawyers appointed by his family.
Authorities are also accused of expediting the trial of 18-year-old Ehran Hosseinipour Hesarloo, who was accused by a Tehran court of being involved in the 8 January fire at a Basij base in a mosque in Pakdasht that left two Basij agents dead.
According to Amnesty, Hesarloo, alongside two other 17-year-old children, had been arrested earlier that day before the incident took place and forced to confess “when interrogators put a gun in his mouth”.
The two underage boys are reported to remain at a detention facility for children and are facing similar capital charges, despite international human rights law prohibiting the death penalty for children aged under 18 at the time of the alleged incident.
