Five prisoners executed on Sunday morning

GVF -- Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam Houli and Mahdi Eslamian were all executed this morning, May 9, 2010.

The semi-official Fars News Agency, cited judiciary officials as saying that the “antirevolutionary” individuals were executed this morning for carrying out terrorists activities such as “bombings in different cities in Iran.” According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, just minutes after the publication of this news story, Farzad Kamangar’s lawyer stated, “I have no information about the execution of these individuals.” He added that he would be referring to the judiciary for verifying the tragic news.

Farzad Kamangar is a Kurdish teacher who had been arrested in the summer of 2006 and was subsequently put under a great deal of physical and mental torture. He maintained through his writings, that he had been forced to make false confessions and that his confessions lacked any credibility as they were obtained under torture.

He was sentenced to death in early 2007 for “criminal intentions.” On 4 February 2010, Kamangar wrote a letter to the head of the judiciary requesting a court of appeal to be held for his case.

Mahdi Eslamian, another prisoner put to death today was arrested on Monday, May 4, 2009 and spent six months in solitary confinement. His brother Mohsen Eslamian had also been previously executed.

The other prisoner executed today was Shirin Alam Houli a female prisoner who was arrested in spring 2008 in Tehran.

Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili and Farzad Kamangar had been in prison since 2006 and had described their court proceedings as “unjust.”

Lawyer and family unaware of execution

In an interview with the opposition website Jaras, Farzad Kamangar’s brother said that his family had heard the news of his brother’s execution through the media and expressed regret about hearing the death sentence of a loved one through the news agencies. “They’re all about lies, I wish the news about my brother’s execution would also be a lie.”

Mehrdad Kamangar said that he had no news about his brother’s condition and that their last contact had been a phone call the day before.

“Since this morning when I heard the news, I have called everywhere. But no one is responding to us,” he said. “If there was justice [in the country], Farzad wouldn’t be executed or at least someone would tell us where he is right now. Everyone has been giving us news from Tehran for an hour now, but we still don’t know where our Farzad is. Is he alive, has he been executed? I don’t know what’s going on in the country. Where is the law?” 

When asked if Farzad’s family had pursued the matter through Kurdish members of parliament, Farhad said that the MPs could not do anything. “They also heard the news through the news agencies. You tell us what we should do.” 

Mehrdad Kamangar also said that their mother is still unaware of her son’s execution. “I don’t even dare give her the news of Farzad’s execution ... I don’t know what to tell my mother. We are waitinig for Mr Bahramian, Farzad’s lawyer. We sent to him to the prosecutor to the get the real news. My only hope is that the news is not true because they had not said anything to the family.”

According to Jaras Farzad’s brother could no longer continue the phone conversation after this last statement. 

The website has also reported that the phone lines of Evin prison had been disconnected since two days ago.
 
It should be noted that this morning’s five hangings took place despite the fact that three of the cases were under review and none of the families or lawyers of the defendants had been informed about the five executions beforehand.