20-year-old Student to be executed; What can you do to save him?!

GVF -- An appeal against the death sentenced issued for a twenty-year-old student from the universety of Damghan has been rejected, which means that Mohammad Amin Valian can be executed at any moment.

An executive member of the Islamic Society at the university, Mohammad Amin Valian has been sentenced to death, by a court in Iran. We have also learned that in issuing this absurd sentence, the prosecutors have referred to a speech made by senior cleric Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, during which he described “desecraters of Ashura” or 27 December 2009 as being “Mohareb” (enemy of God) which is punishable by death. The speech has been used as a religious fatwa for sentencing Valian to death. The sentence can be carried out any moment, as it has been rejected in the appeal phase of the proceedings.

Valian who campaigned for the election of Mir-Hossein Mousavi for his bid to become president in June 2009, was a student activist at the University of Damghan.

He comes from a religious and pro-revolutionary family in the city of Damghan in Semnan province. His activities have always been in the framework of the law and until now, there have been no proven links whatsoever between Mohammad Amin and outlawed groups and organisations in Iran. He was arrested for the sole reason of having held a stone on 27 December (Ashura protests). On that day, authorities turned violent the protests which were initially of a peaceful nature, into a bloody clampdown.

The only piece of “evidence” that has been provided against the young student is a photo that shows him holding a stone, and the news has come as a total shock for the family and relatives of Valian, who happen to very religious too. 

But the question for us is: What can we do?
 
In order to prevent this absurd ruling from being carried out, we urge all Green Voice of Freedom readers to do whatever in their power to spread the word about this sentence and to prevent the death of yet another innocent student from taking place. Some of the measures that we can all take are as follows:
 
1) Temporarily change your profile pictures on social networking websites such as facebook and twitter, in order to raise awareness about Mohammad Valian’s death sentence.
2) If you have a weblog, website or other means for spreading the news about Mohammad Amin’s ordeal, we would like to urge you to help in spreading the news about this ridiculous court ruling in the shortest time possible. Remember, the life of a fellow human being is at stake. 
3) We would also like to ask any person, organisation or figure that has access to Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi in any way, to inform him of the death sentence and how his statements are being misused by judicial authorities and to cause him to intervene in the matter, in order to prevent further disgrace and shame to the clerical rule in Iran. This is his website: http://www.makaremshirazi.org/ 
4) Further, if you are in any way able to contact any official or representative in the Islamic Republic or the Iranian Judicial system, we would like to ask you to do your best in echoing the concerns and voices of the Valian family who can at any moment lose their loved one to a corrupt and dysfunctional judiciary system. This link allows us to write to Iranian embassies and diplomatic missions around the world, and to plead the case of Mohammad Amin Alavian: http://www.servisis.co.uk/greenwave/greenmail.html
 

It is noteworthy that even the members of Damghan University’s radical Basij who were instrumental in Valian’s arrest have expressed their regret and guilt for reporting him to authorities, as they had no clue that he would be sentenced to death on such foolish grounds. When the Basij members heard that Valian had been brought to Tehran and tried and accused of being a Mohareb and “corruption on earth,” they started gathering signatures for a petition they initiated for terminating the twenty-year-old’s death sentence.

The judge at Valian’s court was Mr Salavati. The charges against him included, acting against the national security, propagating against the Islamic system and insulting prominent figures of the Islamic Republic.

Even at his show trial, a representative of the judiciary stated that “on the issue of Moharebeh there are differences of opinion and the issue does leave room for investigation.”

Valian has admitted to having thrown stones at three points on 27 December, when police forces and plain-clothed militia used a great amount of violence and brutality against the green protestors. 

However, Valian stated that the stones didn’t hurt anyone and the court had to find the root of his feelings and dissatisfaction at the time which had manifested in such a way.

He has also admitted to having chanted “death to the dictator” during the rallies. Until now, he has not been able to meet with his family or a lawyer of his choosing.

On the day of his show trial, he was taken to the courtroom directly from solitary confinement in one of the Revolutionary Guards’ detention centres which is still unknown.

“The Judiciary, by this grossly disproportionate charge, devalues the life of a promising young student,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

A prominent human rights lawyer in Tehran, Abdolfattah Soltani, told the Campaign that according to Sharia law, the essential condition for applying the charge of Moharebeh to someone is the certainty that the defendant has engaged in armed activity.

Asked about the act of throwing stones in the street and if such activity can legitimately result in a charge of Moharebeh, Soltani said: “Absolutely not. If a person is arrested because of association with an armed group then Moharebeh may apply. But if an ordinary person, for whatever reason, such as anger or losing his temper, throws a stone, aimed at the destruction of some property or hurting someone, then there are other legal charges applicable and such actions do not rise to the charge of Moharebeh.”

The Green Voice of Freedom hopes that the peaceful actions of all those who respect human rights and justice will force this sentence, which goes against all religious, rational, moral and ethical to be overturned and that the young student can carry on with his normal life.

The Iranian judiciary has shown time after times that it does indeed bow down to pressure from within Iran as well as outside Iran. The case of Roxana Saberi, Iranian-American journalist in just one in a long list of cases when the judiciary has retreated from its absurd rulings.

It is now our turn not to leave any stone unturned in saving the life of a young student that’s being threatened for throwing a stone.