IRAN - Sharifeh Mohammadi Sentenced to Death

IRAN -Labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi

08 July 2024 :

July 4, 2024 - IRAN. Sharifeh Mohammadi Sentenced to Death
Kurdish labor activist
Sharifeh Mohammadi, a labor activist from Rasht, has been sentenced to death by the Iranian Judiciary on charges of Bagh-ye (armed insurgency).
Sharifeh, imprisoned in the women’s ward of Lakan Prison in Rasht (Central Prison of Rasht) for the past 7 months, received this sentence today, Thursday, July 4, 2024. The verdict was delivered to her husband, Sirus Fat’hi.
The First Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Rasht recently convicted Sharifeh Mohammadi of Bagh-ye (armed insurgency) for her involvement with the Coordination Committee for the Formation of Labor Unions and its alleged association with the Komala Party. The conviction was based on Articles 211 and 287 of the regime’s Penal Code of 2013.
The verdict was officially communicated in person to Sharifeh’s lawyer and can be appealed within 20 days of notification in the Supreme Court.
The Intelligence Ministry, which exclusively designates members of opposition groups, had attached reports from the Department of Intelligence of Gilan and the Intelligence Department of Kurdistan to the case file, identifying Sharifeh Mohammadi as a Komala and Coordination Committee member. This situation highlights the lack of independence in the Iranian Judiciary and the evident interference of security services in the Judiciary.
The trial of Ms. Mohammadi took place on Saturday, June 8, 2024, in the First Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Rasht.
She was violently arrested at her home in Rasht by intelligence forces on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, and has spent the last 7 months (212 days) in the central prisons of Sanandaj and Lakan Rasht, as well as in the detention centers of the intelligence departments in these 2 cities.
Sharifeh Mohammadi arrested in December 2023
Previously, Sharifeh Mohammadi had been charged by the Fourth Branch of the Prosecutor’s Office in Rasht with propaganda against the regime, actions against national security, and rebellion through membership in one of the opposition groups. She had been subjected to psychological and physical pressure by interrogators from the Sanandaj Intelligence Department to extract a forced confession.
A source close to Sharifeh’s family stated, “Until 2013, Sharifeh was a member of the Labor Unions Association, which has no connection with the Komala group. She was wrongly accused of Bagh-ye due to her alleged membership in this group.”
The Campaign for the Defense of Sharifeh Mohammadi described the labor organization — the Coordination Committee for Helping to Establish Labor Organizations — as legal but said that, in any case, she had not been a member for 10 years.
The Defense Campaign called the court verdict against her “medieval and criminal.”
“Many believe that this ridiculous and baseless verdict was issued solely to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among Gilan [Province] activists,” the group said.
Major protests erupted in Gilan Province and throughout the country in 2022 following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman who had been detained for allegedly flouting Iran's strict dress code for women.
More than 500 protesters were killed nationwide and thousands arrested during the months of unrest.
Mohammadi’s aunt, Vida Mohammadi, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the woman has been tortured in prison following her arrest on December 5, 2023, and that she had spent several months in solitary confinement. Vida Mohammadi said Sharifeh Mohammadi was not affiliated with any political organization inside or outside the country.