Death Sentence For Three Protesters In Iran Reduced To Prison Time

The attorney of three young protesters who were sentenced to death for participation in the bloody uprising in 2019 says a court has reduced their death sentences to imprisonment. 

Babak Paknia said in a tweet on Tuesday that his clients Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi, all under 30 years of age, have now been sentenced to five years behind bars. 

Iran’s supreme court had confirmed the death sentences, but after reconsideration another court had earlier revised the decision to life imprisonment. 

Paknia had earlier said that during the trial, the defense attorney was not allowed to participate in the process and a notorious judge, Abolghasem Salavati finally sentenced them to death. Judge Salavati, also known as the “hanging judge” among Iranian activists, was sanctioned by the United States for violations of human rights and “unfair trials in Iranian Kangaroo courts.”

Moradi, Tamjidi and Rajabi were reportedly subjected to torture during interrogation to obtain forced confessions, and the judiciary had said they were linked to the exiled Albania-based opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK).

According to some reports, in the "bloody November" of 2019 at least 3,000 protesters were killed by the Islamic Republic’s security forces and nearly 20,000 were arrested. Earlier estimates ranged from 300 to 1,500 civilians killed nationwide. The protests were the most widespread against the regime since its establishment in 1979, and the internet outage gave security officials the opportunity to commit mass killings amid a news blackout for about 10 days.