Act Daily News
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Shahid Alikhani sq. is a nondescript a part of the historic Iranian metropolis of Isfahan. Its sole declare to prominence is the grand entrance to one of many metropolis’s major metro stations.
But now it has turn out to be a spot of pilgrimage for supporters of the high-profile Iranian footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani who worry the younger man may very well be executed within the sq., the place an execution platform has been put in, a witness near Nasr-Azadani in Iran instructed Act Daily News.
Terrified Iranian households consider that whereas the Western world is preoccupied with Christmas celebrations, a wave of executions within the nation is imminent following the latest protests which have swept the nation following the dying in September of Mahsa Amini, a younger girl detained by Iran’s infamous morality police for being accused of improperly carrying her hijab.
In collaboration with the activist group 1500Tasvir, Act Daily News has verified paperwork, video, witness testimony and statements from contained in the nation which counsel that a minimum of 43 folks, together with Nasr-Azadani, may face imminent execution.
Authorities have already executed a minimum of two folks in reference to protests in Iran final month, one among whom was hanged publicly.
Witness testimonies and official paperwork, reviewed by Act Daily News and 1500Tasvir, present proof that means a rushed judicial course of in Iran; expenses which may carry the dying sentence, typically handed down in a single sitting.
Nasr-Azadani is accused of involvement within the killing of three safety officers, together with two volunteer Basij militia members, throughout protests in Isfahan on November 16, Iranian state media IRNA reported final week.
According to state media, the town’s chief justice, Asadullah Jafari, stated Nasr-Azadani had been charged with Baghi – or rioting towards authorities. Under Iran’s penal code, the sentence carries the dying penalty.
Since then, a witness to his arrest stated they hoped Nasr-Azadani can be freed, however however visited Shahid Alikhani sq. day by day to see if authorities would present up with the footballer and execute him on the scaffold. “From the day he was arrested, authorities told us he would be released by the end of the week,” the witness tells Act Daily News.
Then the data dried up. Weeks later the witness, who’s near Nasr-Azadani, says authorities instructed them that the 26-year-old may very well be hanged at Shahid Alikhani sq..
“The thought that they could execute him any day is really very hard for us … and the daily news we keep hearing is worrisome.”
Nasr-Azadani’s household was initially unaware of the explanation for his arrest, the witness tells Act Daily News, and officers wouldn’t share data of his situation. Those near him had been additionally warned to “keep quiet” about his case in the event that they needed to see him launched sooner, the witness tells Act Daily News.
The courtroom final week stated it obtained “video and sufficient documentation that prove he [Nasr-Azadani] is part of an armed group” and that the footballer had confessed to his crimes, state media IRNA reported.
Previous Act Daily News investigations have discovered prisoners have been subjected to torture and sexual assault. Human rights teams say torture-tainted “confessions” have been used towards the defendants in sham trials.
Iranian officers have defended the trials however. In latest days, one Iranian MP stated he believes that these concerned within the present unrest should be executed inside 5 to 10 days after their arrest. Act Daily News obtained no official response from Iranian officers to its request for remark.
Another man, Majid Kazemi, was additionally accused of involvement within the killing of three safety forces in Isfahan, the doc obtained by Act Daily News and 1500Tasvir exhibits. Kazemi instructed others he was coerced into confessing his involvement in felony acts throughout his interrogation.
“He did not confess to having done any of the things he was charged with, and so they beat him up severely,” a supply near Kazemi tells Act Daily News.
A launched prisoner from the power the place Majid is being stored instructed the supply his arm, leg and nostril had been damaged.
Majid’s courtroom session is about to happen throughout the vacation season, the supply tells Act Daily News.
“This will coincide with a time wherein the worldwide group is observing these holy days, and the Islamic Republic regime will make the most of being faraway from the watchful eyes of the world.
“I really fear they will execute Majid.”
In a recording from inside a Tehran jail, inmate Sahand Noor Mahammadzade speaks about how he was coerced into confession.
“The choose that was there instructed me to say that I don’t protest (object) and gave me three pages that I signed, whereas they didn’t even permit me to learn any of them.
“The second time they took me in for interrogation, my charges had completely changed. That second charge levied against me contained the term ‘moharabe.’”
“They told me to go into the prosecutor’s office and upon entering he said: ‘It is evident from his face. Execute this one!’”
In a swiftly photographed doc from inside Isfahan regional courtroom obtained and verified by 1500Tasvir and Act Daily News, it’s revealed that a minimum of 10 folks in Isfahan have additionally been charged with Moharabe (a conflict towards God), spreading corruption on Earth and different expenses – all of which carry the dying penalty.
The cost, launched after the 1979 revolution, is recurrently imposed towards people who find themselves accused of committing acts towards the federal government.
Several different witness testimonies and official paperwork despatched by households, and collectively authenticated by Act Daily News and 1500Tasvir, paint an image that exhibits how the Iranian regime is speeding the judicial course of.
Families and activists say solely court-appointed legal professionals are allowed to symbolize defendants who’re additionally refused the appropriate to attraction.
And if the cost is handed down, the Iranian penal code states they may get the dying sentence in a single sitting – although not carried out instantly and most sentences are appealed.
Soheil Jahangiri is likely one of the Iranians to obtain such a sentence. Members of his household instructed Act Daily News they haven’t heard from him in over a month. They say officers didn’t allow Jahangiri an unbiased legal professional.
“Judiciary officials have alluded to two charges: Baghi and Moharabe. Soheil could face either of these charges that carry the death penalty,” a member of the family stated.
“We are fairly frightened that, with the start of the Christmas holidays and a lower in political strain on the federal government, executions will start anew, and I feel that Soheil’s life and the lives of quite a few political prisoners are in peril.
“We don’t want to see our kids executed while the media is silent,” they added.
Act Daily News has verified that dozens of others – a few of them youngsters – face comparable expenses in reference to the protests and are prone to execution.
In the regional courtroom of Khuzestan, west of Isfahan, Act Daily News has confirmed – at the side of 1500Tasvir – via courtroom paperwork that 23 folks have been charged with crimes punishable by dying.
In Karaj, close to Tehran, Act Daily News and 1500Tasvir have confirmed 5 extra Iranians are dealing with execution. Among them is 21-year-old Iranian-Kurdish Karate champion Mohammad Mehdi Karami, whose mother and father have additionally gone public with their plea.
“Please, I beg of you to please lift the execution order from my son’s file,” his father says in a video shared to social media.
In messages shared with Act Daily News his household says Karami was not solely sentenced to dying, he was tortured in jail.
In one other message shared with Act Daily News, they stated that regardless of his alleged ill-treatment, Karami was in good spirits however “physically damaged” having suffered torture.
For these awaiting execution, the wait behind bars will be insufferable. Just this week, 27-year-old Iranian-Kurdish rapper Saman Yasin tried suicide whereas in detention.
In his final music video, Yasin rapped about inequality and oppression in Iran, singing “they closed my throat violently. They banned beauty. They reversed me like an animal. I am not satisfied with silence.”
Just two days in the past Yasin tried to finish his life, after weeks of tolerating the cruel jail situations in northern Iran, sources within the jail instructed Act Daily News.
Act Daily News has verified that a minimum of 43 detainees are dealing with execution. Statements from each Iranian officers and in Iranian media reviewed by Act Daily News and 1500Tasvir, point out the names of these charged and present that the actual quantity is probably as excessive as 100. Many of the households, although, had been too scared to talk to us immediately to verify the names talked about within the media.
As the yr approaches its bitter finish, for a lot of Iranians their determined pleas linger on.
In a video made public and shared with Act Daily News, the mom of brothers Farzad and Farhad Tahazade, aged 23 and 24, despatched this message to the world:
“Please hear my sons’ cries for help. My sons are young and they have children awaiting their release. Please save them. For the love of God, save my sons.”
In Iran, a lady places herself at nice hazard by publicly talking out towards authorities on behalf of her kids. But it’s a threat many mother and father really feel they haven’t any selection however to take.