Death Row Prisoner’s Father: Confessions After 17 Months of torture
Father of Loghman Moradi, a Kurdish prisoner who was found guilty of “moharebeh (enmity with God), and corruption-on-earth,” and sentenced to public hanging on 22 December 2010, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about his son’s charges that, “he was accused of murder, and this accusation is a lie.”
“He went to Iraq two years ago to join the Komalah Organization, but when he returned to Sanandaj, he was arrested. The court sentenced him to one year in prison, but my son was released on bail four months later. I took him home from Prison myself. But they called him a month later [and told him] that he would be arrested again. My son told them that he had not done anything wrong and that he was not afraid. They called again the next day and said again that he was guilty and he was going to be arrested, and he said that he had not committed any crimes. But on the third day, when he left the house, they arrested him. We did not hear from him for the first nine months. Wherever we went to Mariwan and Sanandaj, looking for him, we were told ‘your son is not here, we don’t know [where he is].’ Until he finally called home after he was transferred to prison and we found out where he was. Now it has been 18 months since he was arrested. At first he thought that he was re-arrested to finish his one-year prison term. He learned later what plans they have for him,” he said.
Osman Moradi, father of the Kurdish prisoner who, along with Zanyar Moradi, have been convicted of armed activities and murder of the Mariwan Friday Imam’s son on 5 July 2009, described his son’s case for the Campaign. “During the first nine months when he was at the Intelligence Office Prison, there was no murder charge in his case. Later, during the next seven months when he was held in prison, there was no such talk, either. But they returned him to the Intelligence Ministry again, and held him there for 25 days. He was tortured and abused to the point where he accepted the murder [charge]. I mean he accepted it in order to save himself from those conditions. It took them 17 months to take that confession from him,” Osman Moradi said.
“I implore those who work in the United Nations and human rights organizations to help my son, and to defend these kids. They have not committed any crimes. When you are under torture and abuse for several months, you would accept anything; they can take any kind of confession from you. If the authorities go to the prison now and ask my son again, if he admits to having done it, they are telling the truth,” he added.
Father of Loghman Moradi, one of the two death row prisoners said: “He is not a murderer, he is not a terrorist, I do not accept this charge at all. The people who know my son in Mariwan, don’t accept this accusation, either. My son was a driver and provided for family that way. I have seven children and I am sick myself. Loghman helped the poor people of Mariwan, too. He has not done anything bad. This charge is a lie.”
“When my son learned about his charge, he called and said “ask them what God they worship. I swear by that same God that I did not do this. On the day of the murder I was at work and I did not go in the direction of the murder location. I heard the news when I returned home.’ My son said ‘If I was a murderer, I would have fled during the month that I was out. I would not sit in my home to be arrested.’ If a person has committed a crime, he would not sit in his home for them to come and capture him. He was forced to make a confession under torture,” said Osman Moradi.
“Our telephone contact with him has been caught off for the past eight days, and it’s not clear where he is. We have no information about my son. We don’t know whether he is well or sick. We don’t know. They have not allowed us to visit with him for the past three months. His mother always went to visit him. I have not been able to see my son for 18 months now, because I had liver disease and I was under treatment. I couldn’t go to visit him and to help him. Now that I can, they won’t allow me anymore,” said Osman Moradi about his son’s current conditions inside the Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj.
“We don’t know why they transferred my son’s case to Tehran. He was arrested here and he was inside the Sanandaj Prison, but three months ago they transferred him to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, and he was banned from having visitors after that,” said Loghman Moradi’s father.
“My son is 25 years old. He is neither a murderer, nor a terrorist. This kid had never been to a police station or prison befoe. I don’t know why they accused him or murder. I am an illiterate man myself, and I don’t understand the law. His lawyer has objected to the ruling and has also asked for clemency. We have not yet received the outcome from the Supreme Court. We don’t know whether they would reject the ruling or not,” he added.
On Wednesday, 22 December 2010, Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Courts sentenced Loghman Moradi and Zanyar Moradi to death on charges of “membership in Komalah Party,” and “involvement in the murder of the Mariwan Friday Imam’s son on the eve of 5 July 2009. The two prisoners have stated that they were forced to admitto the murder under torture.
