| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran condemns two for protesters death in jail |
| 2010-07-01 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A military court has sentenced two men to death in connection with the deaths of at least three anti-government protesters in Kahrizak jail, Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Wednesday. "Two defendants were sentenced to qisas (death penalty), nine others were sentenced to jail and lashes, and one was acquitted," the agency reported, quoting a court statement. It said the two, who under Iranian law have 20 days to appeal, were found guilty of "inflicting intentional abuse leading to the murder of Mohammad Kamrani, Amir Javadi-far and Mohsen Ruholamini." Iran's judiciary said at the start of the trial in March that 11 policemen and one civilian were facing charges over the deaths last summer in the notorious Kahrizak jail, south of Tehran. The court statement did not specify whether the civilian was among the two condemned to death. The case has caused major embarrassment to the Islamic republic, which acknowledged, after months of denial, that the deaths at the detention centre were the result of injuries inflicted in Kahrizak. The centre was shut down last July at the order of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following reports of abuse. In January, a parliamentary probe found Tehran's feared former prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi responsible for sending post-election protesters to Kahrizak last year and called for his punishment. Among the three young men who died of abuse in Kahrizak was Ruholamini, 25, the son of a well-known conservative politician. They were arrested in street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election. A fourth protester was also reportedly feared dead after being jailed in Kahrizak, but this has not been officially confirmed. |
| Posted by:Fred |