Although the death sentence of Saman Naseem was reduced to five years in prison by the Oromiyah Court of Appeals which formally served the verdict to this political prisoner and his lawyer, his release from prison still remains uncertain.
“On Monday, January 22, Saman Naseem was acquitted of the charge of Moharebeh and he was sentenced to five years in prison instead. He may be released on Saturday since he has already served 6 years and 6 months in prison.”, The lawyer of the political prisoner had told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) earlier.
“In criminal cases, this order should be first communicated to the prosecutor as the Attorney General but the prosecutor has not received any notice in this regard yet. This process will not take more than twenty days, so hopefully Saman Naseem will be released in the coming days. “, Saman Nasim’s lawyer explained.
“In the past few days, Saman Naseem has referred to the Enforcement of Office of Orumiyeh and asked to be released, But the prison authorities have refuse to release him so far without giving any specific reasons.,” another source told KHRN.
“The enforcement authorities initially referred to the dossier of his illegal exit from the border, while Naseem was sentenced to 200,000 Tomans of fine for this charge by the Revolutionary Court of Mahabad.”, the source added.
According to the source, yesterday, prison authorities informed Naseem that the Enforcement Office of the Court of Appeals has notified the prison of the order but they have also made an enquiry to the Supreme Court due to the security issues. So, he will not be released from the prison until they receive the response to their inquiry.
On Monday, January 22, the court hearing for Saman Naseem was held at the Orumiyeh Court of Apeals (branch 12) with the presence of his lawyer for half an hour and his 5 years verdict was officially served on him in prison.
Naseem was born on 20 September 1993 in Mariwan. He 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. The letter read: My arrest was the beginning of 97 days of torture and sufferings. During this period, I was tortured every day with everything. 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, my parents and my brother included. 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.”
Regarding his death sentence, he wrote: “I was actually being sentenced to death based on a ‘confession’ that had been pre-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 faced brutality and intimidations. The Supreme Court upheld my death sentence after two years. The prospect of retrial is unclear and because my sentence was issued as a final verdict, I could be executed at any moment. ‘
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 on19 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, Naseem and Aghayan to Zanjan prison, Nejawi and Issapour to Tabriz central prison.
From Zanjan prison, Naseem and Aghayan were transferred to the detention centre of the Iranian intelligence agency and 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 both of them were at imminent risk of execution.
Naseem had asked to be executed as soon as possible on several occasions to put an end to this 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 since been imprisoned.
