Imprisoned Kurdish Youth’s Father Appeals for End to Government Crimes

Zanyar Moradi

Zanyar Moradi’s father, Eqbal Moradi, recently spoke with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about his 19-year old son’s death sentence. “According to the news that I have heard from Zanyar and Loghman’s prison mates, the two of them have been put under pressure and torture again to make false confessions that they killed the son of Mariwan’s Friday Prayer Imam,” Eqbal Moradi said.

Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi were convicted of murdering the Friday Prayer Imam’s son in the city of Mariwan and for being members of the Komaleh Party of Kurdistan.

Expressing that his son is only nineteen, Eqbal Moradi told the Campaign, “Twelve days ago, I heard from one of my son’s prison mates who was out on leave, that they took Zanyar and Loghman to Judge Salavati at the Revolutionary Court, and he asked them to express remorse. So the boys told him, ‘Why should we express we remorse when did not commit a crime, and ask for amnesty? Why do you ask us to appeal for amnesty?’ Then, with insult and abuse, they were returned to their cells again.”

Moradi told the Campaign that both young men continued to be pressured adding, “A few days later, I heard that security forces interrogated them in prison and were once again asked to appeal for amnesty, and the boys didn’t accept again, saying: ‘why do you ask us to write an amnesty appeal?!'”

“With the extraction of an amnesty appeal, they want to show that they themselves accept the crime and, therefore, their execution is logical. The Islamic Republic regime knows who killed the son of Mariwan’s Friday Prayer Imam. The family of the Friday Imam knows also, but because the killers are from senior regime officials in the area, for the fear of scandal, they have made up this scenario for these kids. This is a scenario by the regime itself; a scenario where two defenseless and innocent children are arrested and tortured until they agree that they were the killers. We, the people of Kurdistan, know who the killers are,” said Moradi, who is member of the Komalah Party of Kurdistan and an opponent of the regime.

Regarding his son’s current mental state Moradi said, “They have been in prison for nearly two years and I don’t have any information about the fate of my son and Loghman. Whatever has reached me has been from news websites and my parents. Unfortunately, they have only seen him twice, and that was at the time when he was in Sanandaj Prison. But about his physical condition, he explained it in letters about his suffering, about what has been done to them.”

“I was in prison for six, seven years myself. It is clear what happens in prison. Zanyar’s pictures on websites show what has been done to him,” Moradi added.

“My only appeal to those activists and organizations that endeavor for prisoners, is that in any way possible, put an end to the regime’s crimes,” he said of his expectation from human rights organizations.

Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi were arrested on 6 November 2009. On Wednesday, 22 December 2009, by the order of Judge Salavati in Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, the two men were sentenced to death on charges of membership in Komalah Party, and involvement in the 5 July 2009 murder of the son of Mariwan’s Friday Prayer Imam. The two prisoners have testified that they were forced to accept the murder charge under torture and threats of rape. The two Kurdish youth are now inside Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, awaiting their appeals court decision.