Source:

August 25, 2010

Juvenile offender Ebrahim Hamidi, now aged 18, has been sentenced to death for allegedly sexually assaulting a man two years ago, when he was 16. He has retracted his “confession”, saying he made it under coercion. He is at risk of execution and currently without a lawyer.

Ebrahim Hamidi had been involved in a fight, in the suburbs of Tabriz, in East Azerbaijan Province. He and three friends were arrested afterwards, and charged with committing a sexual assault on one of the men they had been fighting. Hamidi confessed to the crime after three days in detention, during which he said he was tortured. The other three were promised that they would be freed if they testified against Ebrahim Hamidi. All four were initially sentenced to death but during a third trial, the other three defendants were acquitted while Ebrahim Hamidi was again sentenced to death for lavat , or “sodomy”. The alleged victim admitted in a recorded statement to police on 7 July 2010 that he had been under pressure from his parents to make false accusations.

The Supreme Court has rejected the East Azerbaijan provincial court’s verdict twice and has ordered a reexamination of the case, but the provincial court apparently intends to proceed with the execution.

Ebrahim Hamidi now has no legal representation. He had been represented by prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who was forced to flee the country for fear for his safety in early August 2010 possibly in relation to the role he played in drawing international attention to the case of a woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Mohammad Mostafaei had written an open letter about Ebrahim Hamidi’s case in July 2010 in order to highlight the issue of execution in Iran of juvenile offenders – those convicted of having committed a crime which took place when they were under 18.