The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to execute five young men for participating in the December 2017 demonstrations against the current regime, which was sparked by the terror and injustices caused by the government to the Iranian people.

The men were tried in court and given death sentences for ‘waging war on God’ (muhhareba). They are mostly from lower classes and workers and could not acquire a lawyer and were therefore given lawyers from the revolution courts who work on behalf of the government and for the benefit of the prosecutors. Their sentences have been verified in the supreme court of the country and their execution could be carried out at any moment.

The men sentenced to execution are Majid Nazari (middle), Mohammad Bastami (bottom left), Abbas Mohammadi (bottom right), Mahdi Salehi (top right), and Hadi Kiani (top left).

Within July 2020, with further protests and pressure via petitions and an internet storm (the executions of three other separate individuals were halted, showing that petitions and our voices may also be heard in the case of these five men.

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran almost always resort to torture such as prolonged solitary confinement, interrogation without a lawyer present, beatings, electric shock treatment, interrogators standing on their chests, null promises of medical treatment from torture injuries if they “confess”, being kicked, beaten with batons, hung upside down while repeatedly beaten on their legs and feet, bones broken, nails plucked, and threats of their girlfriends/significant others being raped, in order to get fake “confessions” from their victims.

Judges of the Islamic Republic of Iran are known to have imposed outrageous sentences, including the death penalty, lashes, and elongated jail terms, on countless political prisoners. The United States and European Union have sanctioned them previously for violations of human rights and “unfair trials in Iranian Kangaroo courts.”

Confessions extracted under pressure, threats, and torture should not be valid. Protesting and being able to voice one's opinion is a fundamental human right and no one should be imprisoned or executed for it. 

We, the undersigned, urge the United Nations, the European Union, and the rest of the International community to speak up against the death sentences and unfair trials of Majid Nazari, Mohammad Bastami, Abbas Mohammadi, Mahdi Salehi, and Hadi Kiani.

We also urge the Iranian government to immediately halt the execution of these five young men, provide lawyers not linked to the government’s revolution courts with access to their cases, and investigate torture allegations used to obtain false confessions.

We demand the stop of executions in Iran!

If you would like to further help out, please copy and paste this hashtag #لغو_فوری_اعدام on your social medias. It is the hashtag which the Iranian people are using online to stop the executions. It means: ‘Immediate Revoke of execution (sentence)’.

Thank you