Sources of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization reported that the death sentences of Ali Khasraji, Hossein Silawi and Jasem Heidary, three Ahwazi Arab political prisoners, was carried out in the Sepidar prison of Ahwaz this morning, 1 March 2021.
Sources said that security officials have also included Nasser Khafajian among the executed individuals, although he had been tortured to death during Sepidar prison protests last year.
According to human rights activists, the Ahwaz Intelligence Office contacted the families of these prisoners a day before, and asked them to go to security center situated in Chahar Shir area of Ahwaz. Once the families arrived, they were transported to Sepidar Prison in intelligence service vehicles to visit their children. During the meeting, the prisoners announced the imminent execution of their death sentence.
Earlier in November 2020, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld the death sentence of Jasem Heidary on charges of "collaborating with opposition groups" and "“armed rebellion against the state” (baghi)." This prisoner was arrested upon his return from Austria in December 2017 and was first transferred to Evin Prison and then to Ahwaz Intelligence Office Detention Center.
Amnesty International has previously written to the head of Iran's judiciary, Ebrahim Raeisi calling for the death sentences of Jassem Heydari and three other prisoners to be overturned. The statement reads:
‘’We ask you to immediately reveal the fate and whereabouts of Naser Khafajian and stop any plans to execute him and Ali Khasraji, Hossein Silawi and Jasem Heidary. Their convictions and death sentences must be quashed, and they must be granted fair retrials, without recourse to the death penalty and excluding torture-tainted “confessions”
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization strongly condemns the secret execution of Ahwazi Arab political prisoners who were sentenced to death during unfair trials without observing the minimum international standards, and urges the international human rights organizations, especially UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to condemn the organized crime of the Islamic Republic of Iran against defenseless prisoners and take immediate action to rescue other prisoners sentenced to death.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization
1 March 2021
