Ahmad Ghabel’s Sudden Summons to Fariman Revolutionary Courts

Prominent theological researcher Ahmad Ghabel has been summoned to the Revolutionary Courts of Fariman, a reliable source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.  According to the source, Revolutionary Court authorities in Mashad, Ghabel’s city of residence, have disavowed knowledge of the summons. Ghabel will have to appear at the Fariman Revolutionary Courts on Wednesday, 8 September 2010, the summons stated.

Previously, Ghabel spent 170 days at Mashad’s Vakilabad Prison inside the Ministry of Intelligence Ward, and was released on bail.  He has not yet received a sentence from the Mashad Revolutionary Courts in regards to his earlier arrest and detention.

In a recent interview with the Campaign, Ghabel offered his observations about executions of drug-related suspects inside Mashad’s Vakilabad Prison during his detention there this year. Ghabel’s summons to Fariman Courts, however, do not seem to be related to his statements. Mashad Revolutionary Court authorities have told Ghabel’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht that they have not been informed about the summons.

According to information supplied by Ghabel and other prisoners inside Vakilabad Prison, over the past year more than 500 prisoners on death row have been secretly executed there. Reliable sources have informed the Campaign that families and lawyers of those executed did not know about the executions and were not present for them. Some family members question the trial process and the way the death sentences were issued. The number of secret executions drastically increased in August. Sources added that some 2,000 death row convicts are awaiting their execution inside Vakilabad Prison, some of them for several years. Most of these suspects have received their death sentences for crimes related to transporting and possessing drugs.

Ghabel told different media outlets recently that he became aware of group executions of prisoners while at Vakilabad prison. He was detained inside Ward 6/1.  Hundreds of prisoners sentenced to death were detained inside this ward and later transferred to a meeting hall in which the executions took place.