An Iranian organization: 16-year-old female protester sentenced to death
A revolutionary court in Iran’s western Ilam province has sentenced a 16-year-old girl protester to death for “moharebeh”, the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization said Wednesday.
“Sonia Sharifi, a 16-year-old woman from Abadan in Ilam Province who was arrested on 19 November last, has been sentenced to death for moharebeh,” the organization said.
“Security forces arrested this sophomore in secondary school after raiding her grandmother’s house, and her arrest was accompanied by severe beatings,” she said.
It said investigators “forced her to confess to making Molotov cocktails and writing slogans”.
“The Public Prosecution and the Revolutionary Court in Abadan and Ilam did not provide a detailed response to the status of Sonia’s case with the family, during which time they refused to accept a lawyer for this case,” Amnesty International quoted an informed source as saying.
The swift process of prosecuting and convicting young demonstrators has drawn criticism in the past few days, with the Iranian judiciary accused of forming “execution committees” with the aim of suppressing protestors and controlling the protests.
Iranian human rights activists said that Mohamed Borghani, one of the prisoners sentenced to death, is in danger of being executed.
The Detention Monitoring Committee wrote that Borghani was transferred from the general wing of Rajaei-Shahr prison south of Tehran to an unknown location.
“There is a possibility that he could be moved to solitary confinement for execution and the life of 19-year-old Mohamed Borghani is in danger,” the committee said.
Mohamed Borghani, from Pakdasht city, east of Tehran, was charged with moharebeh by judicial authorities during his trial.
Mashreq News, a website linked to security services, posted a video it said showed Mohamed Brughani attacking Basij forces.
In the past few days, Iranian judicial authorities have executed two demonstrators, Mohsen Shekari in Tehran and Majid Reza Rahnavard in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
