Uncertainty has continued looming over the status of the legal case of Kurdish political prisoners Zanyar and Loghman Moradi eight year after their imprisonment.
The Iranian judiciary has refused to accept their request to have a fair trial to provide evidence and documents through their lawyer.
KHRN has obtained and publishes full text below of a translated letter written by the two prisoners on the latest on their case.
“We have been spending days and nights with [the fear of] the death penalty [for] nearly eight-and-a half-years. The last informal trial was held nearly three-and-a-half years ago.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and [the] judiciary knows that there is no document or evidence to confirm the false accusations made in our case and we have many witnesses and evidences that point to our [lawful] acquittal.
We have been victims of political games and scenarios designed by the Sanandaj Intelligence Office for [the past] eight years.
Only a person on death row can understand the meaning of life fading away under the [shadow] of the death sentence.
A trial took place with the presence of lawyer Mr Saleh Nikbakht on 23 July 2014.
During the hearing, the judge found insufficient and incomplete documents on our case. Even witnesses appeared and testified in the court to prove our innocence.
For three years from the date of the trial, our case was transferred from the Prosecution Office to our hometown of Marivan three times.
However, due to lack of evidence and documents, our case remained incomplete, which in essence proves our innocence.
This was the reason that led the judge to declare that ‘during the investigation, no evidence was found on the accusations’.
It is clear that all that were cited from us were based on torture. Interrogations and torture (better not to talk about it) because we still have nightmares day and night and our bodies and our souls continue to carry the inhumane effects of the torture.
During the ten months of our detention at the Intelligence Detention Centre in Sanandaj, it was clear that the accusations were nothing more than an effort to settle past disputes [as father of one of the prisoners is an opposition political activist].
We were only charged with membership in Komalah [party] during the first nine months of our detention
The main reason behind the making of the theatrical dossier was the Iranian government’s hatred and hostility towards the father of one of us (Zanyar Moradi).
He [the father] was a political activist and a member of an opposition party.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had attempted to assassinate him [the father] in Iraqi Kurdistan several times but failed to do so.
Now keeping us [detained] for a long time in prison is unjustified since there is a lack of evidence and documents to substantiate the false accusations and the Ministry of Intelligence prevents the holding of a fair trial due to their fear that a scandal and fabrications made about the case get exposed. They do not want to be embarrassed.
Nonetheless, we have not lost our hope for justice and we still hope that a fair trial will be held to clarify all the facts about our case in the near future.
Zanyar Moradi
Loghman Moradi
Rajai Shahr Prison, Karaj, Iran
May 2017
Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi were arrested in Marivan on 6 November 2009.
They were held in 2009 for nine months in the Intelligence Ministry’s detention centre in Sanandaj and six months in Sanandaj Central Prison before they were transferred to Ward 209 in Evin Prison in Tehran.
On 22 December 2009, Judge Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced the two to death on charges of membership in Komalah Party and involvement in the 5 July 2009 murder of the son of Marivan’s Friday Prayer Imam.
The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence on 9 July 2011, after which they were taken to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj and they have since been detained at that prison.
