Journalist to be executed in Iran
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
other press 
Thursday March 13, 2008 12:18
by pat c
Peter Tatchell writes below on the case of Yaghub Mehrnehad and others under sentence of death in Iran.
An Iranian Baluch journalist and civil rights campaigner, Yaghub Mehrnehad, aged 28, has been sentenced to death for an unknown offence, after torture and an unfair trial conducted behind closed doors, according to Amnesty International. His execution is imminent. He is likely to be hanged in public, using the barbaric slow strangulation method favoured by the Tehran regime. It is deliberately designed to maximise the pain and prolong the suffering of the victim.
Mehrnehad is a journalist for the reformist newspaper, Mardomsalari (Democracy), and president of Sedaye Edalat (Voice of Justice), a lawful, government-registered cultural association in Iranian-occupied Baluchistan.
On February 19, the Iranian judicial authorities announced that Mehrnehad had been sentenced to death for belonging to the armed Jondollah organisation, also known as the Iranian Peoples' Resistance Movement. No evidence has been offered to substantiate this allegation. On the contrary, all Mehrnehad's activities have been lawful and peaceful. His appeal against conviction has been fast-tracked, in violation of Iranian law, to prevent him from challenging what human rights organisations say is a grave miscarriage of justice.
Amnesty International is urging protests to the Iranian authorities, especially to the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei. He can be contacted via The Office of the Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Email: info@leader.ir
Full story at link.