Iranian of the Day

ICHRI: A source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Zanyar Moradi, a Kurdish political prison on death row is suffering from back disc problems and from other ailments while Tehran Prosecutor refuses to grant him permission to seek treatment at a hospital outside the prison.

"Zanyar Moradi suffered severe torture after his arrest and was put under pressure to provide fake confessions. In an open letter, he spoke of torture by Intelligence Ministry interrogators. He suffers from severe back ache brought on by torture, and is also suffering from testicular pains. After repeated requests for transfer to a hospital outside the prison, he was eventually taken to a hospital on June 24. After going through tests it was determined that two of his vertebrae are displaced as a result of severe blows and he has developed a disc problem in three other vertebrae. He also suffers from testicular hernia, all causing him difficulty walking and sitting down," the source told the campaign.

"Upon viewing his test results, prison infirmary officials requested authorization from Tehran Prosecutor for his transfer outside the prison to be examined by a specialist and to be hospitalized, but 1.5 months later, the Prosecutor has not yet approved the request," he added.

Security forces arrested Zanyar Moradi, 23, and Loghman Moradi, 25, on 2 August 2009, for the July 2009 murder of the son of Marivan’s Friday Imam. They spent nine months inside the Sanandaj Intelligence Office Detention Center, under severe pressure and physical and psychological torture to make confessions against themselves. About six months after that, the two prisoners were transferred to the Sanandaj Central Prison and then to Evin Prison’s Intelligence Ministry Ward 209.

On 22 December 2009, Judge Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Zanyar and Loghman Moradi to death by public hanging on charges of “moharebeh” (enmity with God) and “murder of the Marivan Friday Imam’s son.” The two men were then transferred to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, where they later wrote letters alleging they had been tortured in prison and forced to make false confessions. The Supreme Court upheld their sentences in full in January 2012.

Three years after their arrest, in a letter a copy of which has been given to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the two men speak of three years of torture and their long wait for emergence of truth in their cases, expressing their expectations. "Our expectations remain unaddressed after many pieces of correspondence and our requests of judicial authorities for a re-trial. We do not expect the trial and punishment of those who tortured us and treated us inhumanely and immorally. But we still expect the Marivan Friday Imam to act honestly and courageously, as is expected of his religious position, and as he repeatedly promised....The Friday Imam could have...taken a long step toward our release by admitting that we are innocent and that he has no grievances against us," they said in the letter.