Iran halts execution of three young men over November protests

Iran has halted the execution of three young men linked to the deadly protests in November last year sparked by an increase in petrol prices.

“We conveyed a request [for a retrial] to the Supreme Court and they have accepted it. We hope the verdict will be overturned,” Babak Paknia, lawyer of one of the accused, told the AFP news agency on Sunday.

Iran’s judiciary said last week that a court had upheld the death sentence for the three.

It said evidence had been found on the phones of the three – Amirhossein Moradi, 26, a mobile phone retailer, Said Tamjidi, a 28-year-old student, and Mohammad Rajabi, also 26 – setting alight banks, buses and public buildings in November.

“We are very hopeful that the verdicts will be overturned … considering that one of the judges at the Supreme Court had opposed the verdicts before,” the four lawyers representing the accused said in a statement published by state news agency IRNA.

Numerous calls had spread online since the verdict was announced using the hashtag #DontExecute for a halt to executions in the country.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said at the time the verdict could still change over “extraordinary proceedings”, pointing to a legal clause that could trigger a retrial if deemed necessary by the chief justice.

Source: aljazeera.com

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