Four Sunni prisoners still in danger of execution

HRANA News Agency – Four Sunni prisoners in Rajai Shahr prison in Iran are still in danger of execution, despite promises by the Iranian authorities to revoke their death sentences.

 

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the death sentences for the men, Hamed Ahmadi, Jamshed Dehghani, Jahangir Dehghani and Kamal Molayee, were confirmed by the Supreme Court, and their cases were sent to the Implementation of Sentences court, Branch 1 of Shahid Moghadasi court in Tehran.

 

The four men had ended a 75-day hunger strike in January, after officials promised the prisoners that their death sentences would be overturned, their cases would be re-examined in court, and that they would be allowed to appoint their own defense lawyer.

 

However, the authorities have not fulfilled these promises, and the men remain at risk of execution.

 

Jamshed Dehghani and Jahangir Dehghani were arrested on 17 June 2009. Kamal Molayee was arrested on 15 July 2009, and Hamed Ahmadi was arrested on 30 July 2009. The men were severely tortured whilst in detention. They were also threatened with the arrest of family members and forced to sign papers without being allowed to read them.

 

They were accused, together with six other Sunni men, of involvement in the assassination of a senior Sunni cleric with ties to the government who was killed on 17 September 2009. The four men maintain that it was impossible for them to have been involved, as they were arrested months before the assassination took place and were in detention at the time of the killing.

 

The men have denied the charges against them, and say that they were arrested as a result of their peaceful religious activities, including preaching the teachings of Sunni Islam and holding religious classes for children. Nevertheless, the men were sentenced to death by branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary court after being convicted of ‘enmity against God’.

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