Abdolreza Ghanbari’s death sentence commuted to 10 years

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – The death sentence for Abolreza Ghanbari that had been commuted to 15 years in prison exile at Borazjan was reduced again at the Appellate Court Branch 54 to 10 years without exile.

According to CHRR, Abdolreza Ghanbari is among those arrested on December 27, 2009 (Ashura88) in his place of work after the massive street protests. He was subjected to severe torture during his interrogations and unexpectedly put on trial on January 30, 2010 without the knowledge of his family or lawyer. He was charged with “moharebeh” (enmity with God) stemming from alleged relations with MEK (Mujahedin party) and sentenced to death.

Abdolreza Ghanbari has 16 years of teaching experience in Persian literature and has written many research papers in this field. He has spent the last 3.5 years behind bars mostly on death row. Ghanbari is a resident of the poverty-stricken Pakdasht County where he was a teacher at a local school.

According to his sister during a phone call from her residence in Paris, Abdolreza Ghanbari who is father to a daughter and a son was first put on trial at Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Salavati and sentenced to death. He was accused of “participating in the street protests on Ashura,” and “contact with enemy groups.” During his short trial the evidence presented were “suspicious emails,” and “contact with a media outlet outside the country.” On May 10, 2011, Abdolreza Ghanbari’s death sentence was upheld by Branch 36 of Tehran Appeals Court presided by Judge Zargar and a request for a pardon was denied on February 28 2012.

At that time there were fears of his imminent execution. After extensive efforts on the part of his family, in the past year the death sentence for Abdolreza Ghanbari was commuted to 15 years in exile at Barzjan prison. Branch 54 of the Appellate Court recently reduced his prison sentence to 10 year behind bars without exile. Abodoreza Ghanbari is serving his sentence at Evin prison.