Four Sunni men from Iran’s Kurdish minority have again been on hunger strike since 13 June in fear of their imminent execution. They have reportedly been subjected to mock executions at Ghezal Hesar Prison, where they were transferred on 14 June.
Jamshid Dehghani, his younger brother Jahangir Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee have finally been allowed to sign required paperwork for two lawyers to defend them for the first time since they were arrested, in 2009. However they have not yet met with them. Since 14 June, Jamshid Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee have reportedly been subjected to at least four mock executions, a form of cruel and inhuman treatment, which is absolutely prohibited under international law.
The authorities had told the men’s families to come to the prison and visit the men on 14 June.
Meanwhile, Jamshid Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee were moved to an unknown location, raising fears that they were about to be executed. The men had previously been on a hunger strike that lasted 75 days, and are now in poor health.
Their families learned the men had been transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison, Karaj, northwest of Tehran, on 14 June, where they were held in the Quarantine Section, apparently with other prisoners whose death sentences are to be implemented.
The families of the four men began gathering outside the Ghezel Hesar Prison on 14 June, protesting against the possible executions. Four days later the Iranian authorities apparently told them the men were no longer in danger of execution.
Please write immediately in Persian, English, Spanish or your own language:
- Calling on the Iranian authorities not to execute the four men (naming them) and to ensure their death sentences are quashed and that the men are granted a retrial in proceedings that comply with fair trial standards without recourse to the death penalty;
- Calling on them to make sure the men are protected from torture and other ill-treatment, including mock executions, and provide them with any medical attention they may require.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 1 AUGUST 2014 TO:
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street- End of Shahid KeshvarDoust Street
Tehran,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Twitter: @khamenei_ir
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani
c/o Public Relations Office
Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection
Tehran,
Islamic Republic of Iran
(Subject line: FAO
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani)
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Hassan Rouhani
The Presidency
Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square
Tehran,
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: media@rouhani.ir
Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) and @Rouhani_ir (Persian
Also send copies to :
Ambassade de la République islamique d’Iran
Avenue F.D.Roosevelt 15,
1050 Bruxelles
eMail: secretariat@iranembassy.be
Fax 02.762.39.15
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Jamshid Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee have been accused of killing a senior Sunni cleric with ties to the Iranian authorities, Mullah Mohammad Sheikh Al-Islam. They have denied this, saying they had been arrested between June and July 2009, while the Sheikh was not killed until September 2009, and that they have been targeted solely because they practiced or promoted their faith, such as taking part in Sunni religious seminars and distributing Sunni reading materials. The Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences in September 2013, and the sentences had been sent to the Office for the Implementation of Sentences, the official body in charge of carrying out executions.
Jamshid Dehghani, his younger brother Jahangir Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molayee went on a “wet” hunger strike (taking water but not food) on 4 November 2013 in protest at being transferred from Raja’i Shahr Prison to Ghezal Hesar Prison. All four men began passing out repeatedly on 30 December 2013. Because of this, they had been given intravenous fluids in the clinic in Ghezel Hesar Prison. They had refused to receive the intravenous fluids each time they regained consciousness. The four men ended their hunger strike on 18 January 2014 after the prison authorities agreed to transfer them back to Raja’i Shahr Prison.
As a result of the 75-day hunger strike, Jamshid Dehghani’s health worsened and he was taken to the prison’s clinic on several occasions. He was unable to eat food after he ended his hunger strike and had to be on intravenous fluids. Hamed Ahmadi also suffered from stomach pain and digestive difficulties.
Brothers Jamshid Dehghani and Jahangir Dehghani had been arrested on 17 June 2009 while they were at work. Kamal Molayee and Hamed Ahmadi were arrested on 15 and 30 July 2009, respectively. They were not allowed to contact their families to say they had been arrested. All four were arrested by men in civilian clothes believed to be from the Ministry of Intelligence, and were taken to a detention centre run by the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj, Kordestan. They were held in solitary confinement in Sananadaj and Hamedan in west Iran until February 2011, when they were transferred first to Evin Prison in Tehran, then to Raja’i Shahr Prison and finally to Ghezel Hesar Prison.
All four men said they were arrested for their peaceful religious activities, including holding religious classes for children and discussions at their local mosque.
The Prosecutor General of Tehran suspended their death sentences for one month around October 2013, following international pressure, but the men are now at imminent risk of execution. The Human Rights Committee, the body monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party, has held that mock executions constitute cruel and inhuman treatment within the meaning of Article 7 ICCPR, which enshrine the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
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