They Were in Chains During Our Last Meeting

Family members of the six Kurdish political prisoners who were executed last week, told Rooz that their imprisoned kin were sent to an isolation ward last week just before being executed. They also said that when they saw their incarcerated family members for the last time the prisoners were kept in an iron cage with their hands and feet in chains. Rooz spoke with family members of Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Molai, Jamshid and Jahangir Dehghani who told it that they had been told without any warning one day that the executions would take place the following morning at 4am.

These four Kurdish Sunni political prisoners had been accused of complicity in the assassination of Mamosta Mola Mohammad Sheikh al Islam, the former Kurdish representative to the Assembly of Experts on Leadership. But the family members told Rooz that their imprisoned family members were behind bars when Mamosta was assassinated so they could not have been involved in the killing.

Sitting across Rajai Shahr prison in the town of Karaj which is about 45 minutes from Tehran, the family members of the Kurdish prisoners told Rooz that their imprisoned members were on a hunger strike. At the time, they added that the court trials that operated under judge Moghise lasted only ten minutes after which the death sentences were passed, while the defenders had no attorney representation.

In addition to the four above-mentioned Kurdish prisoners, two others, Hadi Hosseini and Sedigh Mohammadi had also been transferred to the same quarantined area as the other four prisoners, where pre-execution prisoners are kept. These two were arrested in 2009 and sentenced to death on charges of having contacts with Salafi groups, which are an offshoot of Islam.

The sister of Jamshid and Jahangir who met with her imprisoned brothers for ten minutes in Rajai Shahr prison before they were executed told Rooz, “That morning they called us, unexpectedly, and told us to go and have our last meeting with our family member prisoners. In addition to us, there were then the family members of Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Molai and two others by the names of Sedigh Mohammadi and Hadi Hosseini. We were also told that the executions would take place at 4am in the morning. When we saw our imprisoned family members in Rajai Shahr, their hands and feet were in chains and they were kept in a cage. Now, we are waiting in front of the prison.”

She also said that the prisoners had embarked on a hunger strike to protest the sentence against them. “They had been tortured in prison, by the ministry of intelligence and then asked to sign some papers while blindfolded claiming that the papers were for their release. They were only 21 and 22 years old,” she further explained.

According to Jamshid and Jahangir’s sister, her brothers were only disseminating their personal views. “Is this is a crime in Iran for someone to express his views and to say that he is Sunni?” she asked and continued, “My elder brother was a taxi driver while the younger one worked in a dumping ground. They did not even engage with each other and met in prison.”

She said in her last meeting with her brothers, they had asked her to ask the Sunni community and the international community for help.

Hamed Ahmad’s sister described her tragedy by telling Rooz that her brother had an attorney but he had not been allowed to engage in the case. “Towards the end, he had three lawyers,” she said.

Kamal Molai’s sister on the other hand said that her brother was in good spirits during their last meeting. “He was a mechanic and would have turned 40 now. He had been in prison for four months and ten days when Mamosta was assassinated. They are lying that he had a hand in this. My brother had religious activities; that’s all. He fasted, went to the mosque and engaged in promoting religion. He did not say anything in his last meeting, but was in good spirits,” she added.