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Press Archive - 10th November 2009 - 3 Comments »

Halt Execution of Ehsan Fatahian, Review Case

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(10 November 2009)  The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today appealed to the chief of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Larijani, to halt the execution of Ehsan Fatahian, whose execution is scheduled for 11 November at Sanandaj prison.

“We consider Mr. Fatahian to be a prisoner of conscience, who has been unjustly charged, sentenced in violation of Iranian law, and been convicted without due process and in the absence of evidence to prove the case against him,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.

“The Judiciary should halt the execution and review the case to institute safeguards so similar miscarriages of justice will not occur again,” he said.

Ehsan Fatahian, 28, is a member of Iran’s Kurdish minority. He was initially arrested and tried in the first branch of the Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj on the charge of conspiring against national security by being a member of an armed opposition group, and he was sentenced to serve a term of 10 years in prison, in exile.

Subsequently, and at variance with Iranian law, the charge of Mohareb, or enmity against God, was added to his indictment, and his sentence was changed to execution.

The Campaign has been in direct contact with Fatahian’s family in the past day. They explained that while he was a member of a Kurdish organization, he took no actions against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and he was never armed. They stated that during his detention, authorities attempted to force him to confess to the prosecutor’s charges, but he resisted. When a lower court sentenced him to a ten-year prison term, the prosecutor appealed the case, at which time new charges were added and the death sentence imposed.

The Campaign has filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, and Arbitrary Executions about the case.



3 Comments

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Natasa Hadzimanovic
Nov 10, 2009 16:46

Cases like this one can also be reported to amnesty international in order to start an urgent action, which gives activists of amnesty international – ordinary people like us, which just have to register themselves with amnesty international – the possibility to write letters, e-mails or faxes to the Judiciary. I am sure the leaders and members of The Campaign know this. However, maybe the readers of this website do not and wonder, what else could be done to help in cases like this.

Sima Sahar Zerehi
Nov 10, 2009 21:57

The Iranian government is using fear tacticts to extingtuish the fire of resistance; they want to demobilize the democratic movements for change. I hope that hundreds of thousands of people join such campaigns to stop the brutal execution of these young activists. We have shed enough blood in Iran.

Kevin Alipor
Nov 13, 2009 1:07

We can’t just sit and watch this brutally dictatorship system of Iran to execute our young people everyday; specially our young Kurdish men and women who are fighting for their own freedom, fighting to have an ordinary human being life style, these people believe in peace and struggling to be treated just like human being.

We must act and must act now to put pressure on this regime to stop killing, torturing, raping and abusing other young men and women of our great nation.

Executing Ehsan Fatahian is disrespect to democracy, civilized world, freedom of speech and to all human being who are fighting for freedom and their own basic rights.

This sad tragedy which has happened to him and his family has happened to all of us and if we just sit and ignore these kind of executions and humiliations; we will be guilty as much as those who ordered and carried out the execution.

I am deeply grief and depressed by hearing this calamity, hope it will be the last one to hear, hope that all human being regardless of their race, colour, culture, gender, language, background and etc be respected and regarded equally.

Freedom for all human being in the world

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