Two Men Executed; Four at Risk of Execution

Perisan2English,

Ja’far Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei were executed on 24 January in Evin Prison, Tehran. They were convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) for links with the banned political group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), and “propaganda against the system”. Arrested in 2009 their death sentences were confirmed in 2010. Four others remain at risk of imminent execution.

Ja’far Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei were arrested in September 2009 at a time of mass protests and tried together. Both men had visited relatives at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where 3,400 PMOI supporters reside in exile. Ja’far Kazemi had previously been imprisoned in Iran for PMOI membership. He may have been tortured while being interrogated at Evin Prison after his arrest in 2009 and is said to have been pressured to make a televised “confession”, but to have refused. He and Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei were sentenced to death in April 2010.For more information, please see http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/iran-hangs-two-activists-detained-during-2009-unrest-2011-01-24

Another prisoner, Ali Saremi (or Sarami) was executed without warning on 28 December. He was sentenced to death in December 2009 for “enmity against God” because of his alleged membership of the PMOI. According to media reports the death sentence on Farah (also known as Elmira) Vazehan was overturned on 19 January and her case was referred to Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court for re-examination. However, four men remain at risk of imminent execution: Abdolreza Ghanbari (or Qanbari), father and son Ahmad and Mohsen Daneshpour Moghaddam, and Javad Lari.