to legal counsel”, 10 . Despite urgent calls by UN human rights experts to halt their executions11
Loghman and Zanyar Moradi were sentenced to death by hanging in December 2010, and were
executed in Rajai Shahr Prison on September 9th 2018, alongside a third Kurdish prisoner. 12
E. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to reply to communications
regarding the alleged torture, prolonged solitary confinement and imminent
execution of individuals for offences not regarded as “most serious” and in violation
of procedural safeguards.
Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian national with a permanent residency in Canada, was arrested in Iran
in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2010 on charges of “spreading corruption on earth” due to a
web program he created.13 His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2012 and in
2019 it was reported that he had escaped to Canada through an undisclosed third country.14
Ahmad Reza Hashempour was arrested on charges of "Insulting Islam" and "Writing
pornographic material in Farsi websites" and sentenced to death in 2008.15 In 2012, it was
reported that his execution sentence was upheld in the Supreme Court. In 2013, his attorney,
Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, announced that his sentence of execution had been halted and
revised to life in prison. The current status of his case is unclear.
Vahid Asghari, an Iranian journalist arrested in 2008 for his work, was sentenced to death in
2012 on charges of Moharebeh (enmity against god).16 Though he was sentenced to 18 years in
prison in 2014, he was later released in 2016 under unknown circumstances.
Mehdi Alizadeh Fakhrabad, a blogger, was arrested in 2008 during a campaign against Internet
pornography. He was then detained for nine months before posting bail.17 In 2011, he was
arrested again and was found guilty of waging war against the state. He was subsequently
sentenced to death.18 In 2013, his sentence was reduced to eight years in prison, banned from
social activities for seven years and fined 100 million rials ($3,338) for "propagating against the
state and insulting sacred beliefs.19 According to United For Iran, Fakharbad has served his
sentence and has been released as of March 2021.20
10
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 6 March 2012:
https://www.shaheedoniran.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/G1211412.pdf
11
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23512&LangID=E
12
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/3476
13
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/4932/2016/en/
14
CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canadian-resident-escapes-iran-after-11-years-ofdetention-1.5235747
15
Iran Prison Atlas, United for Iran: https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/2006/
16
Iran Prison Atlas, United for Iran: https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/1047/
17
Iran Prison Atlas, United for Iran: https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/1077/
18
Ibid
19
Ibid
20
Iran Prison Atlas, United For Iran https://ipa.united4iran.org/en/prisoner/1077/
3