November 29, 2009

Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) reports that Mohammad-Reza Haddadi, a youngster who was arrested in 2003, at age 15 was sentenced to execution and whose appeal to the Iranian regime’s high tribunal was turned down, will be shortly executed in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz.

Mohammad-Reza’s mother reported that his sister self-immolated when the family was informed of the high tribunal’s decision to carry out the sentence and had rejected the appeal. Mohammad-Reza was accused of being an accomplice to murdering an elderly man who in 2003 gave Mohammad-Reza and two friend a ride as they were hitchhiking alongside a road outside of Shiraz. At a rest stop on the roadside where Mohamad-Reza was at the restroom, the two other young men killed the driver; upon his return from the restroom however he was involved in pouring gasoline on the deceased’s body, burning and then burying him.

Mohammad-Reza’s father says that his son was hung by his wrists from a tree by officers of the Iranian judiciary from 12 noon until midnight and was severely lashed with metal cables until he confessed to a crime he had not committed. The public prosecutor is said not to have conducted any research or investigation and sentenced him.

Translated from Persian to English by Planet Iran staff