MR YUNIS AGHAYAN IN IMMINENT DANGER OF EXECUTION
No: 513/ 2009
Date: 13 March 2009
The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva
Please circulate this to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions; it is also of relevance to:
• Working Group on arbitrary
detention
• Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges
• Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and intolerance
• The Independent Expert on Minority Issues
CC: Mr Dyke and Mrs. Harrison,
Amnesty International, London
Also: Human Rights Watch; Human Rights Server; and Helsinki Human Rights
Dear sir/madam,
UPDATE 1: MR YUNIS AGHAYAN IN IMMINENT DANGER OF EXECUTION
Further to our earlier Communication (Ref: 349/2006 on 16 July 2006; Ref:365/2006 on 19 August 2006 and also Ref: 485/2008 on 28 January 2008), now Mr. Yunis Aghayan, a national of Southern Azerbaijan and therefore a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is on death row and in imminent danger of execution by the Iranian authorities. It is within your mandates to intervene when capital punishment is imposed after an unfair trial and this is the case for the reasons presented in this Update. Your action is needed urgently as another Southern Azerbaijani national, Mr. Mehdi Qasimzade (please refer to349/2006 on 16 July 2006 for our collective information on both victims), was executed on 3 March 2009 by the Iranian authorities, who was exactly in a similar situation.
The details for the arbitrary treatment of Mr Aghayan by the Iranian authorities are presented in Table 1 and summarized below*:
1. In winter 2003, a number of youth in the village of Uch-Tepe, the birthplace of Mr. Aghayan, published a pamphlet explaining the desolate conditions of the village in terms of their religion (the Elevi sect of Islam) and their Azerbaijani nationality. This led to the detention of five youth from the village.
2. In spring 2004, the detainees were released on bail but later armed officers raided the village to re-arrest them, as the authorities held that their animal farming centre was also a centre of blasphemy. This led to a confrontation, during which the armed officers shot dead 6 Azerbaijani-Elevi villagers including three of those released on bail but also the armed officers killed two of their own in their friendly cross-fire.
3. In 2005, Mr Qasimzade was then rounded up in this process and this may include Mr. Aghayan, who were innocent but they were condemned to death penalty by the Soyuqbulaq (Mahabad) court.
4. In 2006, the appeal court in Tehran confirmed this arbitrary sentence but Mr. Aghayan was promised with a commutation of his death sentence if he repented from his Elevi faith. Mr. Qasimzade suffered the death penalty 3 March 2009 but Mr. Aghayan is now confirmed to be in death row.
The deplorable death sentence by the Iranian authorities is a violation of the right to life of Mr. Yunis Aghayan. This right is enshrined in article 3 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights ([1] www.un.org/Ove…) and in article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stating that “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.
([2] www2.ohchr.org…)” We believe this right is a legally enforceable right in every United Nations member state and therefore we appeal to you to campaign on behalf of Mr. Aghayan to save his life and safeguard his human rights. Thank you in advance for your care.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Eli Tashkent
Chairperson of the Committee for the Defence of the Rights of World Azerbaijanis