Amnesty International calls for the immediate halt of Reza Rasaei’s execution.
Amnesty International, for the second time in recent months, has demanded the immediate suspension of the execution of Reza Rasaei, who has been imprisoned in Dieselabad Prison in Kermanshah since the nationwide protests in Iran in 2022.
In a letter addressed to Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Amnesty International urged him to prevent the execution of this political prisoner, stating that all possible legal avenues to overturn Reza Rasaei’s death sentence have been exhausted, and there is a risk of his execution.
Amnesty International states that the death sentence issued for Mr. Rasaei is based on confessions obtained under torture, and his judicial proceedings were unfair.
Mr. Rasaei, 34 years old and a member of the Yarsan minority, was arrested on November 24, 2022, by the Intelligence Office agents in Shahriar, Tehran, and later transferred to the town of Sahneh.
He was sentenced to death in October last year by the second branch of the Criminal Court of Kermanshah on charges of complicity in the premeditated murder of Nader Birami, the head of the IRGC Intelligence in the town of Sahneh, and this verdict was upheld by the country’s Supreme Court in early January.