Iran: Death penalty/Torture: Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam (m)
AI Index: MDE 13/080/2007
UA 164/07 Death penalty/Torture
IRAN Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam (m), aged 40, army colonel
Colonel Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam was sentenced to death by a military court in February 2007, and is now facing execution. The charges against him are reported to have been politically motivated, and the court proceedings appear to have fallen short of international fair trial standards.
Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam was detained on or around 26 February 2006 and reportedly spent 11 months solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin Prison. The full details of the charges are not known, but they included spying and "transmitting state secrets to foreign interests". He reportedly "confessed" after ill-treatment and possibly torture.
He appealed against his sentence, and on around 11 June a higher military tribunal reportedly upheld the verdict. His case has still to go before the Supreme Court for a final appeal.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Torture has been used systematically in Iran for many years to extract information, and "confessions" are sometimes broadcast on television. Torture is facilitated by laws and procedures governing detention and interrogation which permit solitary confinement and prevent detainees having access to lawyers until the process of investigation is completed, and by the existence of parallel and sometimes informal institutions which run their own detention centres to which the judiciary has no access.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English or your own language:
- expressing concern that Colonel Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam has been sentenced to death;
- asking for details of the trial proceedings in which Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam was convicted;
- urging the authorities to commute the death sentence imposed on Davoud Abdollahi Moghadam immediately;
- acknowledging that governments have a responsibility to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but stating your unconditional opposition to the death penalty, as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation of the right to life.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: [email protected]
Fax: +98 251 774 2228 (mark FAO Office of His Excellency Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei)
Salutation: Your Excellency
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: [email protected]
via website: www.president.ir/email
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Speaker of Parliament
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 3355 6408
Email: [email protected]
and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 10 August 2007.