HRANA News Agency – Nusratullah Khazayi was executed in January, while his family says his case was still pending in the prosecutor and his death sentence was not finalized. In follow-up after his execution, several judicial authorities in Tehran Prosecutor’s office told them that the prisoner should have not been executed. This case can be another example of the concern of opponents of the death penalty who have emphasized on its irreversible and irrevocable nature.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), on January 2, 2017, a prisoner charged with “trafficking of drugs” was executed in Qazvin prison.
The prisoner’s brother told HRANA’s reporter in an interview, “My brother had no criminal record, the case was sent to Tehran and it was still in the process. Since April 29, 2015, when the case was sent, they had told that the case would take two years to be treated and since then his execution was stopped.
I had called to the prosecutor and they said that the case was still pending and that I should call a month later. I answered that my brother had been executed on January 2. They asked me why he had been executed and the case was still open there. He connected the phone to other officials and they also gave me the same answer. All of them said he shouldn’t have been executed; his execution was stopped. Qazvin prosecutor shouldn’t have done it without their permission.”
“I was told from Tehran to refer to the prosecutor of Qazvin and ask how he had been executed although the case had still not been sent from Tehran to Qazvin.” He continued.
He stated: “Mr. Hesari is the third representative of Mr. Larijani in the judiciary and the case of my brother was in his hands. The secretary answered and in the computer, the case was pending. He connected the phone to higher authorities, to three rooms and all had the same opinion that his final sentence had not been issued and he shouldn’t have be executed.”
In the end he said: “On January 1, 2017 we went to visit him and we and my brother were not informed that he was going to be executed. On Monday at 6 am my brother called and said: ‘I am going to be executed. My sentence had been stooped by article 20, hadn’t it?’ I shouted and said that the case was still pending but my brother said: ‘they do not accept what I say’ and then they took the phone out of his hands.”
His mother told HRANA’s reporter, “When his verdict was issued we visited Friday Prayer’s Imam and a member of the parliament and asked them to write a letter for Article 20. They gave us the case number and told us to call two months later. Up to two months before they were saying the execution was pending. On Monday at 6 am my son called me and said he was going to be executed. We said and insisted not to execute them but he was executed. We had called again Tehran on January 10, and they said his case was still pending. How could it be that my son’s case is pending and he was executed?”
She said, “We cannot live anymore, my other son takes suicide medicine every day, what should we do? His friends in the prison and out of the prison call or come to our home and say he shouldn’t have not be executed.”
Mrs. Khazayi also pointed out: “My son was imprisoned for five years and six months, I visited prosecutors and asked them not to kill my son and took the Quran with me but it was useless. I swear to you and your God, give back my son’s right. Five years and four months from Tehran to Qazvin I went everywhere. I wish all our heads would be cut but my son had not been executed. The drugs did not belong to him, the judge himself had given discount and had written the carriers were not found, it is mentioned in the verdict. ”
“I went to the court and they said it was because of crystal meth. I said it had been 10 years that we lived in that neighborhood and we had not broken anyone’s glass. He said that crystal was a kind of drug. My son said it did not belong to him and he would serve his sentence and come out.”
At the end his mother added: “The first Commission did not accept the amnesty but the second time Mr. Ansari, Qazvin prosecutor signed, a member of parliament signed, also the Friday Prayer’s Imam signed. Now when I visit the prosecutor of Qazvin, what can I say? My son has passed Class of Quran in the prison, and prison officers loved him, every time I met they wanted my birth certificate, every week we had a meeting, because he had a good behavior.”