Lawyers Of Two Executed Iranians Say The Hangings Were ‘Unjust’
Lawyers of two young protesters hanged Saturday in Iran say the judiciary executed them so hastily that there was no chance for legal follow-up on their cases.
Lawyers of two young protesters hanged Saturday in Iran say the judiciary executed them so hastily that there was no chance for legal follow-up on their cases.
Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani, Mohammad Hosseini's lawyer, published a photo of a request for retrial, saying the execution of his client was "unjust".
“Considering the call for appeal and submission of documents, including harassment of my client to extract a confession and documents regarding his mental illness, carrying out the sentence was unjust,” he added in a tweet.
Sharifzadeh said that a day after the verdict’s confirmation, he filed a request for retrial, but officials turned down his request.
Mohammad Aghasi, the lawyer of Mohammad-Mehdi Karami, also said in an interview that “They executed my client so quickly that they didn't even give him a chance to write a petition for retrial.”
Both lawyers were not allowed to defend their clients in court, as Iran’s judiciary only recognizes those attorneys that it selects and appoints to political cases.
Aghasi pointed out that the Supreme Court also failed, because the sentences should have been overturned when the defendants did not have a lawyer of their choice.
Based on the statements of the defendants and their lawyers these two protesters were tortured physically and mentally to extract confessions, a common practice by Islamic Republic officials.
Despite public anger over the executions, the judiciary continues to issue death sentences and exerts pressure on hundreds of imprisoned protesters and their families.
The European Union in a statement Saturday condemned the execution of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini in Iran and called the executions “yet another sign of the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of civilian demonstrations” and urged Iranian government to “strictly abide by their obligations enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” to which Iran is a party.
“The European Union calls once again on the Iranian authorities to immediately end the strongly condemnable practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters,” the EU said and called on Tehran to “annul without delay the recent death penalty sentences that were already pronounced in the context of the ongoing protests and to provide due process to all detainees.”
Condemning the executions and calling them “abhorrent”, British foreign minister James Cleverly urged the Islamic Republic to "immediately end the violence against its own people". "The UK is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances," Cleverly said.
US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley tweeted, “Appalled by the regime’s execution of two more young Iranians after sham trials. These executions must stop. We and others across the globe will continue to hold Iran’s leadership accountable.”
French senators have tabled a resolution calling on the EU for ending nuclear negotiations with Iran and designating the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
“Over 40 senators have supported the motion that requires the European Union to end the talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, and shut down Iranian banks in the EU countries and close its airspace to Iranian flights for fundamental human rights violations,” Senator Nathalie Goulet who proposed the motion with her colleagues in the upper house of the French Parliament told Iran International.
The European affairs committee of the Senate will be working on this resolution over the next ten days, she added.
The resolution calls on the Government and the European Union to “consolidate and extend the limitation of access to the primary and secondary capital markets of the Union for Iranian banks, including those established on the territory of the European Union.”
It also calls on the European Union to expel students in the EU who have a family link with Iranian officials on the list of Persons Subject to Restrictive Measures for Serious Human Rights Violations in Iran.
Other European lawmakers, some of whom have accepted the political sponsorship of some of several detained Iranian protesters including those with a death penalty hanging over their heads strongly condemned Saturday’s hangings of, Karami and Hosseini, urging their governments to adopt restrictive measures against Iran for its violation of human rights.
Helge Limburg, the German lawmaker who accepted Karami’s political sponsorship in a tweet said he could not express his deep “sadness and rage” over his execution while French lawmaker Clementine Autain who also sponsored Karami in a tweet strongly criticized the French President Emanuel Macron for his “silence vis-à-vis the [Islamic Republic] regime.”
Norbert Röttgen, member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in a tweet after the executions said Germany and the EU must “finally start taking decisive action to protect the 19k other prisoners” while another German MP, Hannah Neumann, in a tweet said the regime “will not stop with more talks and red carpets”. “We need to send a clear signal and treat them as what they are: terrorists,” she added.
