Sons Issue Plea For Iranian Activist Father To Be Taken Off Death Row

rferl.org – The three young sons of activist Abbas Deris have appealed to the authorities not to carry out the execution of their father — which would leave them as orphans — as fears grow his death sentence on charges he denies may be imminent.

In a video circulated on social media, one of the three sons speaks as they all look down at the carpet they’re sitting on and says we are “begging for our father’s life to be spared. Our mother died from a stroke triggered by the sentence handed to our father. We have no one left but our father.”

Deris and his brother, Moshen, were accused of “waging war against God, disrupting order, and participating in the murder of Reza Sayadi,” a member of the special police forces during nationwide unrest in November 2019.

The plea comes a day after Fereshteh Tabanian, a lawyer for Deris, said Branch 39 of the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence without giving any regard to objections she filed in the case on July 5.

Deris’s mother also released a video in which she called for her son’s execution to be commuted.

The November 2019 protests saw thousands of Iranians in more than 100 cities and towns protest the government’s sudden decision to raise gas prices. The protests quickly turned political, with many chanting against the Islamic regime and its leaders.

Iranian Human Rights has confirmed the death of 324 citizens, including 14 children, in the protests, but the Reuters news agency has estimated through its research that the actual number of people killed was around 1,500.

Iran, which has been rocked over the past year by demonstrations over deteriorating living conditions coupled with discontent over a lack of freedoms, especially women’s rights, has been sharply criticized for a jump in executions as it tries to quell the unrest.

The wave of executions has sparked outrage among rights activists and many Western governments, who have called the legal proceedings against the accused “sham” trials where proper representation is not always granted and decisions are rushed behind closed doors.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights said on June 1 at least 307 people have been executed in 2023, a 76 percent rise compared with the same period last year.