Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Mehdi Tarbandi (Tarband)

About

Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam
Civil Status: Unknown

Case

Date of Killing: July 5, 1981
Location of Killing: Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Corruption on earth; Armed rebellion against the Islamic Republic; Sedition and/ or threat to public security; War on God, God's Prophet and the deputy of the Twelfth Imam

About this Case

News of the execution of Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi (Tarband), son of Abbas, along with twenty-two others, was published in the Kayhan and Jomhuri Eslaminewspapers on July 19, 1981, quoting the Public Relations Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of the Islamic Republic.

Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi is also one of the 12,028 individuals listed in an addendum to the Mojahed magazine (No 261), published by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization on September 6, 1985. The list includes individuals, affiliated with various opposition groups, who were executed or killed during clashes with the Islamic Republic security forces from June 1981 to the publication date of the magazine. According to this source, Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi was a sympathizer of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization.

Arrest and detention

According to the announcement by the Public Relations Office of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of the Islamic Republic, Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi, along with eighty-nine others, was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards in Hezardastgah Naziabad Golabdareh on June 17, 1981. The Revolutionary Guards had surrounded the building. Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi was detained and interrogated for eighteen days.

Trial

The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran tried these defendants. The trial sessions continued in various branches of the Revolutionary Courts until July 5, 1981.

Charges

The charges against Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi, along with fourteen others, were collectively announced as, “being main coordinators, trainers, and directors of the team house, supplying weapons, sending other defendants to the streets and public places after being trained for using weapons, and personally fighting with weapons.”

The validity of the criminal charges brought against this defendant cannot be ascertained in the absence of the basic guarantees of a fair trial.

Evidence of guilt

According to the above report, the evidence presented against the defendants was as follows: “During the search of the mentioned team house, many weaponries were recovered such as G3 machineguns, Molotov cocktails, containers of incendiary materials, bullets for Colt, Uzi, and G3 weapons, bows and arrows, slings, knives, carpet cutters, homemade grenades, bags of salt and pepper, pieces of stone and brick, gallows’ ropes, and other tools such as spray paint, caskets, net caps, canteens, back packs, cameras, radios, calculators, overcoats, fabric bags, and many books and tapes and documents and publications of Monafeqin [Mojahedin Khalq] which were partially burned by them.” The “confessions” of the defendants and “testimonies of the Revolutionary Guards who discovered the team house” were also presented as evidence.

International human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its systematic use of severe torture and solitary confinement to obtain confessions from detainees and have questioned the authenticity of confessions obtained under duress. In the case of political detainees, these confessions are, at times, televised. The National Television broadcasts confessions, during which prisoners plead guilty to vague and false charges, repent and renounce their political beliefs, and/or implicate others. Human rights organizations have also pointed to the pattern of retracted confessions by those prisoners who are freed.

Defense

According to the announcement, “the defendant defended himself after understanding the charges.” The Prosecution’s communiqué does not provide specific information on Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi's defense.

Judgment

َThe Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran identified Mr. Mehdi Tarbandi as "Mofsed (corruptor on Earth), Mohareb [a person who wages war against God], Baghi (rebel), and for armed uprising against the rule of the Islamic Republic." He was condemned to death. The ruling was carried out when he was executed by firing squad in the Evin prison yard on July 5, 1981 at night. No specific information is available about the defendant’s execution.

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