Iran halts the executions of three young men linked to deadly November protests, sentences which had sparked widespread outrage, one of the accused’s lawyers told on Sunday.
Last week a court had upheld their death sentences over evidence the judiciary said was found on their phones of them setting alight banks, buses and public buildings during the wave of anti-government demonstrations.
Overturning the executions
“We conveyed a request to review the verdict to the supreme court and they have accepted it,” the lawyer, Babak Paknia, said over the phone.
“We hope the verdict will be overturned.”
The lawyer identified the three as friends Amirhossein Moradi, a 26-year-old retail worker, Said Tamjidi, a 28-year-old driver for Snapp (Iran’s Uber), and Mohammad Rajabi, also 26 and unemployed.
Read more: Why is Public Execution Such a Fuss? How Other Countries Execute Criminals?
They were sentenced to death for “collusion to endanger national security” and “destroying and setting fire to public property with the aim of confronting the political system of the Islamic republic,” said Paknia, who represents Moradi.
The Iranian judiciary has suspended the executions of three men linked to anti-government protests in November, one of their attorneys, Babak Paknia, said on Sunday.#StopExecutionsInIran#اعدام_نکنید#آزاد_کنید
https://t.co/sh6j2xLiVH— Mohammad Ali Taheri Movement (@Taheri_Movement) July 19, 2020
The trio had also received prison sentences on other convictions including theft and leaving the country illegally, he added.
The demonstrations erupted on November 15 after authorities more than doubled fuel prices overnight, exacerbating economic hardship in the sanctions-hit country.
They rocked a handful of cities before spreading to at least 100 urban centres across the Islamic republic.
Read more: Iran manages to quell another protest, for now
Petrol pumps were torched, police stations attacked and shops looted before security forces stepped in amid a near-total internet blackout.
Optimistic about Iran halting executions
A senior Iranian lawmaker said in June that 230 were killed and thousands injured during the protests.
Authorities had for months refused to provide casualty figures, rejecting tolls given by foreign media and human rights groups as “lies”.
London-based rights group Amnesty International has put the number of deaths at 304, and a group of independent UN rights experts said in December that 400 could have been killed, including at least 12 children, based on unconfirmed reports.
Read more: UN says Iran must overturn three death sentences
The United States has claimed that more than 1,000 were killed in the violence.
Four lawyers representing the accused said they were “very hopeful” that the verdicts would be overturned.
In a statement published by state news agency IRNA, they noted that “one of the judges at the supreme court had opposed the verdicts before”.
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Paknia also appeared optimistic, saying the process to overturn the verdicts “could take a few months”.
“Today we join hundreds of thousands of Iranians on social media who condemned these death sentences,” said the more than a dozen independent UN experts, on issues like arbitrary executions, freedom of assembly and torture.
— Dr. Reza Parchizadeh (@DrParchizadeh) July 17, 2020
The lawyer said the defence team planned to make a request to Iran’s chief justice if their current push does not succeed.
Numerous calls had spread online since the verdict was announced, using the hashtag #DontExecute to call for a halt to executions in the country.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said at the time that the verdict could still change over “extraordinary proceedings,” pointing to a legal clause that could trigger a retrial if deemed necessary by the chief justice.
Urging Iran to declare the verdict void
A group of UN rights experts had urged Iran on Thursday to overturn the verdict before Iran’s own decision to halt the executions.
Read more: First federal execution in 17 years carried out in US
“Today we join hundreds of thousands of Iranians on social media who condemned these death sentences,” said more than a dozen independent UN experts on issues including arbitrary executions, freedom of assembly and torture.
The case of Moradi, Tamjidi, and Rajabi “is not an isolated incident,” the UN experts said, adding: “There are widespread reports of arbitrary detention of protesters and torture to obtain false confessions. Other individuals have also reportedly been imprisoned and possibly sentenced to death for their participation in the protests.”
They called on Iran to conduct an independent, impartial and transparent investigation into the events of November 2019, to prosecute state officials involved in rights violations and to set free anyone detained for peacefully protesting.
France said it was “deeply shocked” by the verdicts and reaffirmed its “steadfast opposition to the death penalty”.
Three individuals were sentenced to death in Iran for participating in protests. The execution is expected momentarily. Executing these three people sends a terrible signal to the world and should not be done! #StopExecutionsInIran
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2020
US President Donald Trump also weighed in, tweeting that executing “these three people sends a terrible signal to the world and should not be done!”
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk