Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Iranwire – The Dadban legal group has issued a grave warning regarding the imminent execution of protester Reza Rasaei’s death sentence.
According to a reliable source, the risk of Rasaei’s execution has escalated significantly in recent days, with no apparent obstacles in its implementation.
A person close to Rasaei’s family informed Dadban, a group of pro-bono lawyers, that despite registering objections under Article 477 several months ago, neither the family nor their legal representatives had received any response.
Rasaei, a 34-year-old member of Iran’s Kurdish and Yaresan ethnic and religious minorities, was arrested on November 24, 2022, in Shahriar, Tehran province.
He is currently being held in Dizel Abad prison in the southern province of Kermanshah.
Amnesty International quoted an informed source last year as saying that the man was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including “electric shocks, suffocation by putting a plastic bag over his head and severe beatings to compel his forced ‘confessions.'”
The group urged the authorities to immediately grant Rasaei access to his family, independently chosen lawyer, and adequate medical care to protect him from further ill-treatment and “investigate his torture allegations, bringing anyone found responsible to justice in fair trials.”
Iranian authorities unleashed a brutal crackdown on months-long protests sparked by the custodial death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
More than 520 people were killed during demonstrations, and over 20,000 were unlawfully detained, activists say.
Following biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters. Nine of them have been executed so far.
The protests and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in Iran’s western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan, which is home to the country’s Sunni Baluch minority.
