Five political prisoners Executed at Evin Prison

10/ 05/ 2010

Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alam Houli, Farhad Vakili, Ali Heydarian and Mehdi Islamian were executed this morning, Sunday May 9, 2010. Four of them were minority Kurds who  they had been found guilty of membership of armed opposition groups

Farzad Kamangar was a Kurdish teacher, arrested in the month of August 2006. During his months of incarceration, he was exposed to extreme mental and physical torture which he described in a letter.He was sentenced to death in March 2007. In a letter written to the head of the judiciary on the 15th of February, Kamangar had requested a retrial. He was sentenced to death in February 2008. In a letter written to the head of the judiciary on February 4, 2010, Kamangar requested a retrial. Farzad Kamangar’s brother said that the lawyer and family were unaware of the execution, Mehrdad Kamangar said that he had no news about his brother’s condition and that their last contact had been a phone call the day before.

Shirin Alam Houli had been arrested in June 2008 in Tehran by Sepah Pasdaran and transferred to Evin Prison after 21 days interrogation and tortures in an unknown place. She had described what had happened to her completely in a letter which she had given to her family. In this letter she related many physical as well as mental pressures she had endured during the interrogation and wrote to her interrogators that what they did to her has become part of her nightmares and caused many disorders both physically and mentally. Shirin Alam Houli was treated unfair from the beginning of her arrest and ultimately executed without any advance notification and against all the legitimate measurements.

Mehdi Islamian was arrested on May 4, 2009 and spent six months in solitary confinement. His brother has also been executed. Ali Heydarian and Farhad Vakil were imprisoned since 2006. It should be noted that this morning’s five hangings took place despite the fact that three of the cases were under review and none of the families or lawyers of the defendants had been informed about the five executions beforehand.

Evin prison phone lines have been disconnected by prison authorities from two days ago to execute political prisoners; Farzad Kamangarn child of Baghi, Ali Heydarian child of Ahad, Farhad Vakilie child of Mohammad Saeed, Shirin Alam Houl child of Khezr and Mehdi Eslamian child of Mohammad.According to Hrana news reporters, three of defendants were executed while their cases were being reviewed based on the article 18.

Lawyers and human rights activists say that the executed were innocent, and that their court cases had not been finalized. "The decision to execute them was premade," said lawyer Khalil Bahramian, in an interview. Kamangar was a teacher and Alamhouie an uneducated girl from a village, said Bahramian. Their representative said he was "bewildered" by the sudden execution of his clients.