Amnesty International statement on Gholamreza Khosravi's execution

                   

Source: Amnesty International, June 3, 2014

Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani, sentenced to death for “enmity against God” (moharebeh), was executed on 1 June in Raja’i Shahr Prison, in Karaj.

Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was executed in the early hours of 1 June, in Raja’i Shahr Prison, in the city of Karaj. He had been transferred to the Quarantine Section of Raja’i Shahr Prison on 28 May, from Section 350 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. His sudden transfer raised fears that his death sentence would be carried out soon. His family were told on 31 May that they had been granted a prison visit that evening. This unusual day and time for the prison visit raised further fears that Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani’s sentence would be carried out imminently.

It was only at the end of the visit that the prison authorities told his family that his sentence would be carried out at dawn the next day. He was buried the next day in Esfahan, central Iran, in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Intelligence with only one family member reportedly permitted to be present.

According to a media interview, one of Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani’s family members said that an official from the Ministry of Intelligence told Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani that he had been named as someone responsible for the circumstances that led to the raid on Section 350 by security officials on 17 April.

Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was arrested in 2008 in Rafsanjan, Kerman Province, in connection with his alleged support of the pro-PMOI (People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran) TV station Sima-ye Azadi (Voice of Freedom). In 2008 he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, three years of which were suspended. Following an appeal by the Ministry of Intelligence, the three-year suspended sentence was implemented, bringing his total sentence to six years. Following further legal proceedings, including two retrials, he was sentenced to death after he was convicted of the new charge of “enmity against God” (moharebeh), for his alleged ties to the PMOI. The Supreme Court confirmed this sentence on 21 April 2012.

Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani had reportedly spent over 40 months in solitary confinement in various detention centres since his arrest in 2008. He had spent five years in prison, from 1981 to 1986, for his alleged ties to the PMOI, which he served in Kazeroun Prison and Adel-Abad Prison, in Fars Province, south-west Iran. The PMOI is
a banned opposition group based in Iraq which advocates the overthrow of the Iranian government. The PMOI has previously engaged in armed action against the Iranian government.