Iranian political detainee in imminent danger of execution

Jafar Kazemi

The death sentence for Jafar Kazemi, an Iranian post-election detainee, has been sent for execution after being approved by the appeals court.

Nasim Qanavi, Kazemi’s attorney, confirmed the news and told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her request to review the case has been denied and at the moment there is no other legal avenue to save the life of Jafar Kazemi.

Kazemi was arrested last September in Tehran’s 7th Tir Square and kept in solitary confinement for 74 days.

Kazemi is accused of “enmity against God through sympathizing with the People’s Mojahedin of Iran Organizations”, a dissident group that the Islamic Republic considers as one of its archenemies. However, his attorney maintains that her client merely participated in the post-election gatherings and perhaps chanted a few slogans but the “charge of enmity against God does not apply to him.”

Qanavi adds that most Shiite expert clerics maintain that taking up arms is the first criterion for calling someone “mohareb”, a term used in the Iranian jurisprudence which translates into “enmity with God.”

Kazemi’s attorney added that the preliminary court, the appellate court and the Supreme Court refused to pay attention to her defense and added that his client did not accept the charges in any of his interrogations.

Jafar Kazemi is a lithographer at the University of Amir Kabir. He was also incarcerated for nine years in the 1980s.

Roudabeh Akbari, Kazemi’s wife has appealed to the UN Secretary General in a letter to help stop the execution of his husband.

The Islamic Republic has handed the death sentence to a number of protesters who were arrested in the course of widespread protests to the allegedly fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Arash Rahmanipour and Mohammadreza Ali-Zamani were executed last February for the similar charge of “Moharebeh.”

Some of the families of the detainees report that the phone at section 350 of Evin Prison where Jafar Kazemi is being held have been cut off in recent days which does not bode well since reportedly the officials have also cut off the phones in previous times in preparation for executions.

In May, another five political dissidents were hanged at Evin Prison.