Two Iranian students are at the risk of being put on an unfair trial and possibly being sentenced to death, Amnesty International warned on Monday. Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi have been subjected to torture and harsh treatment in Tehran’s Evin prison since their arbitrary arrest on April 10, 2020.
Unjustly detained university student #AliYounesi was held in prolonged solitary confinement in Iran, violating the absolute prohibition against torture & other ill-treatment. He is still in Evin prison's sec 209. @Khamenei_fa must immediately release him! https://t.co/crIVV1Wrdr pic.twitter.com/F7x73yMtX0
— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) November 22, 2021
“Ministry of intelligence agents beat them and held them in prolonged solitary confinement in harsh conditions to extract forced ‘confessions’. They are prisoners of conscience targeted for exercising their right to family life,” Amnesty wrote in its statement.
Younesi, 21, and Moradi, 22, are detained in ward 209 of Evin prison, which is under the control of Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Both were held in solitary confinement for 60 days after their arrest, which Amnesty described as a “violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.” Their families did not learn about their whereabouts until 26 days after their arrest.
Younesi was denied treatment for injuries to his left eye sustained during beatings by MOIS agents. The prison guards left the lights on 24 hours a day in his cell, leaving him with no sense of day or night and causing him distress and pain. Younesi also contracted Covid-19 in prison without having access to proper care.
Moradi was also severely beaten during his arrest.
Unjustly detained student #AmirhosseinMoradi was held in prolonged solitary confinement in Iran, violating the absolute prohibition against torture & other ill-treatment. He is still held in Evin prison's sec 209. @Khamenei_fa must immediately release him! https://t.co/crIVV2e24Z pic.twitter.com/3oHTZw8xdj
— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) November 22, 2021
MOIS agents repeatedly interrogated both prisoners without their lawyers present and forced them to make confessions in violation to their right to remain silent and not to incriminate themselves, Amnesty reported.
Extracting confessions under torture is a known tactic of the Iranian regime. It uses this method to record and later broadcast videos of prisoners to justify the crimes it has committed against them. In September 2020, interrogators had told Younesi to cooperate with their demands to have his death sentence commuted to life in prison even before he had gone on trial. They later put up a mock meeting with a person who posed as a staffer in the Swedish embassy to extract confessions from him.
In July, the Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran accused Younesi and Moradi of “corruption on earth” (Mofsed-e-filarz), a bogus crime the regime uses to sentence dissidents to death. The two students were also accused of “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system.”
“The authorities violated their right to be presumed innocent by publicly accusing them of ties to ‘counterrevolutionary’ groups apparently based on their families’ real or perceived association with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran,” Amnesty wrote. “The regime has also made spurious accusations of having found ‘explosive devices’ in their possession. Both students denied these accusations. Their interrogators also accused them of removing posters of Iranian officials and participating in peaceful protests in January 2020.”
Younesi and Moradi have been denied access to a lawyer of their own choosing since their arrest.
“They remain held in separate parts of Section 209 without trial, where, according to a relative, they are denied adequate healthcare and fresh air and sleep on the floor. Ali Younesi has never been examined by an eye doctor,” Amnesty warned.
Younesi won the gold medal of the 12th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, held in China in 2018. Earlier, he had won the silver and gold medals of the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2016 and 2017. Amir Hossein also won the Olympiad silver medal in 2017.
Since their arrest, their case has attracted international attention. Many members of parliament, personalities, as well as international associations and bodies have called on the Iranian regime to release Moradi and Younesi. Among them are Nobel laureates, a group of members of the European Parliament, Amnesty International, parliamentary committees in the UK, Italy, Australia, Canada, and Belgium, the Human Rights Federation of Italy, the Hands off Cain NGO from Italy, the Committee of Muslims in France, Irish MPs, the International Committee in Search of Justice representing 4,000 MPs in Europe and the U.S., the committee of MPs from Romania, MPs, and dignitaries from Arab countries, and the Committee of French Mayors.
