IRAN: DEATH SENTENCES OF FIVE AHWAZI ARABS UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT

January 11, 2013: Sources in Iran have reported that the death Sentences for five Ahwazi Arab political prisoners were upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court.
In July 2012 Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that Judge Seyed Mohammad Bagher Mousavi, from branch 2 of the Ahwaz Revolutionary Court, notified lawyers and family members of the five Ahwazi Arab activists about their death sentences.
Recent reports indicate that branch 32 of the Iranian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences.
The name of the Ahwazi Arab activists are: Mohammad Ali Amouri, Hadi Rashedi, Hashem Sha’bani, and two brothers by the names of Seyed Mokhtar Albooshooke and Seyed Jaber Albooshooke.
Mohammad Ali Amouri is a cultural activist and the editor in chief of Altaras, a student publication at the Isfahan University of Technology. Hashem Sha’bani is a teacher at numerous high schools in the city of Khalfieh. Hadi Rashedi and the two brothers (Mokhtar and Jaber) were condemned to death based on the charges of "Acting against national security" and "Moharebeh" (enmity against God).
The five political prisoners have reportedly been forced to make false confessions.
Two of the men, Hadi Rashedi and Hashem Shabaninejad were featured on a program on Press TV, the Iranian authorities’ English-language satellite channel, confessing to their alleged subversive acts. Reports indicate that the confessions were extracted under severe physical and mental torture. The court sentenced the five activists to death in July 2012 based on the false confessions. (Sources: Iran Human Rights, 11/01/2013)