The mobilization has borne fruit. Iran has suspended the execution of three young people involved in the November 2019 anti-power protests and sentenced to death, a lawyer for the defendants told Agence France-Presse on Sunday (July 19).
“We have forwarded a request [pour un nouveau procès] to the Supreme Court and she accepted it. We hope the verdict will be overturned, “ said on the phone Me Babak Paknia. The Iranian Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the death penalty for Amir Hossein Moradi, 25, a cellphone salesman, Said Tamjidi, 28, a student, and Mohammad Rajabi, 25, a real estate agent.
Vast virtual mobilization
The spokesperson for the judicial system, Gholamhossein Esmaïli, however, indicated on Tuesday that the verdict could still change due to “Extraordinary procedures”, highlighting a legal clause which could trigger a new trial if the chief justice deemed it necessary.
In the process, a vast virtual campaign rallying athletes, politicians and academics, as well as movie stars, was launched on Twitter and Instagram to prevent their killing. In three days, the slogan of this mobilization, the hashtag “Do not execute them”, has been used more than 8 million times on Twitter.
The Judicial Authority says evidence that they burned down banks, buses and public buildings during the protests was found on the phones of convicts. The three young men took part in the protest movement that broke out on November 15, 2019 in Iran as soon as a sharp rise in the price of gasoline was announced, in the midst of an economic crisis, and had affected a hundred cities. Police stations had been attacked, shops looted, banks and gas stations burned, and leaders had cut the Internet nationwide for at least a week.
Arrested several weeks after the demonstrations, they were sentenced in late February for “Vandalism”, “ignition of fires in order to fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and “War against God” ((moharebeh), without their lawyers being able to consult their files or attend the hearings.
Call for a “fair trial”
Their condemnation has mobilized well beyond Iranian borders. Experts from the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday urged Iran not to execute them, and to guarantee them a fair trial. The three condemned “Claim that they confessed under torture” and were not entitled to a fair trial, experts said. “We call for an independent and impartial investigation into these allegations of torture”, they added.
According to them, the death penalty would constitute “A flagrant violation” Iran’s human rights obligations, noting that the three-man case is not ” an isolated case “ and that’“There are numerous allegations of arbitrary detentions of demonstrators and confessions obtained under torture”.
Tehran had estimated the number of people killed in November at 230. But, according to Washington, the crackdown on protests has left more than 1,000 dead. A group of independent experts working for the UN estimates that the toll could be more than 400 dead (including 12 children).
