Political Prisoner ٍExecuted Despite Lack of Due Process

Gholamreza Khosravi

A long-time death-row inmate accused of inciting recent prison disturbances was unexpectedly executed on the morning of June 1, 2014 in Rajaee-Shahr Prison, the semi-official Fars news agency
reported.

Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani had been sentenced to death following his arrest in 2008 on charges in connection with his alleged support for the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MEK).

Khosravi’s sister told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the family, who visited him the night before the execution, was unaware that his death sentence was to be imminently carried out.

The Campaign has learned that Khosravi had been transferred to Rajaee-Shahr from Evin Prison where officials had singled him out as one of the main perpetrators of a confrontation with agents in Ward 350 on April 17, an incident widely reported and criticized by human rights and civil society activists.

Fars reported that Khosravi had history of arrest and prosecution in the 1980s as a supporter of the MEK. When he was rearrested in February 2008 many documents were allegedly discovered that showed his links with the MEK and he was accused of cooperating with the organization’s satellite television channel, Simaye Azadi.

Khosravi was initially sentenced to six years in prison by the Revolutionary Court in Rafsanjan. While serving time, for unknown reasons his case was transferred to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran where Judge Pirabbasi sentenced him to death on charges of sedition. The sentence was approved by the Supreme Judicial Council.

Abdolfattah Soltani served as Khosravi’s defense lawyer but was himself later imprisoned and shared a cell with Khosravi in Evin’s Ward 350. Khosravi was previously due to be executed in August 2012.