Three Esfahan Death Row Inmates Say They Are Still Alive
Three death row detained Iranian protesters said in a phone call from the city of Esfahan (Isfahan) prison that they are still alive.
Three death row detained Iranian protesters said in a phone call from the city of Esfahan (Isfahan) prison that they are still alive.
Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi, who are awaiting the death sentence handed down in a trial condemned as a travesty of justice by human rights campaigners, made a phone call to their families Wednesday night, cousin of Kazemi, Mohammad Hashemi said in a tweet.
He also thanked the people who have twice gathered in front of the prison to stop the execution of the three protesters.
The three inmates were convicted over the death of two IRGC’s Basij militia members and a police officer in protests in November last year, in what Persian media have dubbed the ‘Isfahan House’ case.
On Wednesday evening, protesters in cars gathered outside the jail in Esfahan in an attempt to stop the execution of three political prisoners. Security forces’ gunfire was heard around the jail during the protest.
Amnesty International also on Wednesday slammed their trial and sentencing saying it was “shocking”.
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “The shocking manner in which the trial and sentencing of these protesters was fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system amid the use of torture-tainted ‘confessions’, serious procedural flaws and a lack of evidence is another example of the Iranian authorities’ brazen disregard for the rights to life and fair trial.”
Amnesty’s statement also referred to Majid Kazemi’s audio recording from prison in which he said he was forced to make false self-incriminating statements after interrogators beat him, gave him electric shocks, subjected him to mock executions, threatened to rape him, execute his brothers and harass his parents.
Municipality workers supported by riot police on motorbikes, masked security agents and Basij militia began demolishing the outdoor seating spaces of the cafes that have no inside seating at five in the morning on Sunday for what the district mayor, Ehsan Sharifi, said was “unlicensed use of the outside space”.
The neighborhood was an epicenter of protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who was fatally injured in September 2022 while in police custody following her arrest for not wearing her headscarf “properly.”
The Basij militia of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has four bases within the five square kilometer complex which has 15,500 apartments and a population of around 45,000. The neighborhood is very popular with professionals, artists and other educated groups with a sense of community unmatched elsewhere in the city.
“They ransacked everything outside the little cafes. Some of these cafes like Godar and Tehroun have been here for years. It was because of hijab but they claim the residents had complained about these businesses,” a young man from Ekbatan told Iran International.
“Do you think they were here to arrest the leader of a human trafficking band? Or that they had found a drug kitchen? Or to arrest an Interpol wanted criminal? Did they find bombs?” tweeted Shahrak Ekbatan, the neighborhood's popular twitter account after the incident.
“No! … They demolished the cafes for spreading ‘corruption and immorality”. Why? Because they are afraid of the people of Ekbatan and their solidarity,” the tweet said.
The admin of the account who wanted to be quoted by the name Aida told Iran International that demolition of the cafes has created a greater sense of solidarity among the residents. “People immediately came to help clean up the mess they left behind and are buying more takeaway at these places to support them.
Residents have dubbed their neighborhood as “The United States of Ekbatan” and “Autonomous States of Ekbatan”.
“This neighborhood does not obey the laws of the Islamic Republic. Enjoy your day!” a graffiti on the wall of one of the blocks, covered in anti-regime slogans, declared recently.
For over three decades Ekbatanis, as they like to call themselves, have hosted one of Tehran’s biggest Charshanbe Suri bonfire night festivals in late March. The police and the Basij militia, who consider the festival a pagan tradition, always cracked down on the merry-making boys and girls, who often flouted the hijab rules too, playing loud music and dancing in the leafy spaces between the buildings.
Ekbatan was also famous for its nightly anti-regime “window chanting” during last year’s protests. Residents have been chanting again from their windows since Monday after rumors emerged that three protesters were at imminent risk of execution in Isfahan.