On Thursday 25 January the death sentence for the political prisoner known as Saman Naseem on charges of Moharebeh (waging war against God) by the Orumiyeh Court of Appeals was reduced to imprisonment sentence by the Supreme Court. However, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has filed new charges against him including murdering and injuring four members of IRGC.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has been informed that the family of Saman Naseem was waiting for his release in February due to his death sentence changed to a five-year imprisonment. But IRGC Intelligence Agency filed a new case against the prisoner without observing the legal procedures and prevented his freedom.
An informed source told KHRN that the allegations raised during the arrest against the political prisoner were Moharebeh through his membership in the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) and the murder of a member of the IRGC known as Rahmat Dadwand. Orumiyeh Court of Appeals acquitted him of the murder but his death sentence was confirmed on charges of Moharebeh.
The source added that on Tuesday, March 12 Saman Naseem was transferred to Branch 7 of General Prosecutor’s Office of Orumiyeh and was questioned about murdering one person and wounding three other members of IRGC. The judge has told him that the dossier of his case will then be referred to the branch 1 of Revolutionary Court in Sardasht for a hearing.
On 25 January, after years of unceasing efforts, Saman Naseem was acquitted of the charge of Moharebeh and was sentenced to five years in prison for being a member of PJAK, and this sentence was served on him by the Enforcement Office of the prison. He was supposed to be released on Saturday since he has already served 6 years and 6 months in prison”, Aziz Mozhdehi, the lawyer of this political prisoner, told KHRN.
Born on 20 September 1993 in Mariwan, Saman Naseem was arrested at the age of 17 in the border town of Sardasht on 18 July 2011 by IRGC forces.
He detailed his situation in prison in a letter made public in February 2015. “My arrest was the beginning of 97 days of torture and sufferings. During this period, I was tortured every day in every possible manner. In the early days, the torture was so brutal I was unable to walk afterwards. All my body was black and blue. They hung me upside down with my arms and legs tied to the roof for many hours. During interrogations, I was always blindfolded and unable to see my torturers. They used all the inhumane and illegal methods to obtain a confession from me. They repeatedly said that they had arrested my family members and relatives too including my parents and my brother. They also said that they would bury me with like they did to my comrades. They told me that they would kill me right there and put cement on my grave.”, his letter stated.
“I was actually being sentenced to death based on a ‘confession’ that had been already written. After receiving a death sentence from the Mahabad Court on 16 February 2013, I was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison, where I once again treated brutally. The Supreme Court upheld my death sentence after two years. The prospect of retrial is unclear and I could be executed at any moment since the court’s verdict against me was final.”, he said regarding his death sentence.
In December 2013, the capital punishment was confirmed by the Supreme Court and Naseem’s lawyer was informed that the execution was scheduled to be carried out on 19 February 2015.
On 17 February 2015, Naseem and five other death row prisoners (Sirwan Nejawi, Younes Aghayan, Habib and Ali Afshari, Ebrahim Issapour), who were imprisoned together in Oroumiyeh prison, were separated and transferred to different prisons.
Afshari and Habib were transferred to Qazvin prison while Naseem and Aghayan were sent to Zanjan prison. The other two prisoners including Nejawi and Issapour were transferred to Tabriz central prison.
Naseem and Aghayan were transferred from From Zanjan prison to the Detention Centre of the Iranian Intelligence Agency where they were detained in solitary confinement cells. They were denied any rights of communication with their family and relatives for 120 days. Their families were not informed about their fate and whereabouts. Officials said that both of them were at imminent risk of execution.
Naseem had requested to be executed as soon as possible on several occasions to put an end to the endless nightmare of being at the solitary confinement cell, the uncertainty about his fate and being denied the right to communicate with his family.
After this period, which lasted four months, Naseem was sent back to Zanjan prison. On 11 July 2015, five months after his disappearance at the hands of Iranian authorities in the most secretive way, he was allowed to call his family to inform them about his detention in Zanjan prison. On 19 September 2015, he was transferred to Orumiyeh prison where he has been imprisoned since then.
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