Iran’s Supreme Court upholds death sentence, ruling called “unfair”

Iran-HRM – Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Yousef Mehrad, allegedly for insulting the Prophet of Islam. The Revolutionary Court of Arak also upheld 8 years for Mr. Mehrad for another part of his case.

Mohammad Arman, Mr. Mehrad’s lawyer said the ruling was unfair and the Iranian Judiciary needed to exonerate his client.

Arman, the Judiciary-appointed lawyer for Mr. Mehrad, said his client had not confessed to any of the charges leveled against him. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court upheld the preliminary court’s ruling that relied on implied conclusions unsubstantiated legally or religiously.  

“I do not consider the ruling of the Central Province’s First Criminal Court and the subsequent endorsement by the Supreme Court as fair. I hope that by heeding the existing documentations in this case, the process would lead to his exoneration,” Arman asserted.

The First Branch of the Criminal Court of the Central Province had previously sentenced to death two men accused of insulting the Prophet. Seyyed Sadrollah Fazeli Zare’e and Yousef Mehrad were informed of the ruling while in detention in the Prison of Arak on April 22, 2021.

Mr. Mehrad’s case also includes charges such as propaganda against the state, formation of a group, insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic, insulting the supreme leader.

According to Mr. Mehrad’s lawyer, the First Branch of the Public and Revolutionary Court of Arak convened to examine these charges, and subsequently sentenced his client to 8 years in prison, on May 24, 2021.

Security forces arrested Yousef Mehrad on May 24, 2020, at his home in Ardabil, and ultimately transferred him to the Prison of Arak. Mr. Mehrad is father to a 3-year-old child.

He was detained in solitary confinement for two months, and was deprived of contacting his family or being visited by them for another 8 months.