Zamani had endured prison and torture for four and a half years. Ali Haji Kazem, warden of Gohardasht prison, and two other henchmen, Arjomandi and Syed, carried out the ruthless hanging.
Zamani was handed four death sentences by the branch six of the Revolutionary Court in summer of 2004. By the end of 2004, the Supreme Court, presided over by Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i [now Minister of Intelligence] and Nabi Raji, handed Mr. Zamani two death sentences and payment of blood money on bogus charges. When informed of the sentences, Zamani rejected the charges and wrote below the verdict: “I do not protest the sentence that has been issued.”
Zamani, 31 at the time of his execution, tolerated intense physical and psychological torture in prison. The regime’s henchmen tried to break his resolve and coerce him into surrender. They transferred him to a ward housing dangerous criminals for a long time to put him under pressure. Zamani, however, remained steadfast and resisted the pressures. He went on hunger strike several times in 2004 and 2005 to protest against the horrendous prison conditions.
Hojjat was the third child from the Zamani family murdered by the Iranian regime. Hojjat’s older brother, Khaz’al Zamani, a Mojahedin member, was killed in Ilam’s mountainous terrain in 1999 and his other brother, also a Mojahedin member, was killed in March 2001 by the regime’s agents in the Haft-Cheshmeh region of Ilam. Abdullah Naderi, Hojjat’s maternal uncle, was also killed under torture by the regime’s henchmen in 1989.
The Zamani family is a well-known in the Haft-Cheshmeh region of Ilam (western Iran) and has been the target of persecution. Mr. Zamani was a teacher in the villages in Ilam until 1996 when the regime attempted to arrest him because of his support for the Mojahedin.
Faced with domestic and international crises, the clerical regime has in recent weeks stepped up pressures and torture against steadfast political prisoners, including Mojahedin detainees. The regime’s henchmen had threatened that if the regime’s nuclear file were referred to the Security Council, they would kill all Mojahedin political prisoners similar to the massacre of political prisoners in summer of 1988.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), extends it deepest condolences to the grieved Zamani family and the people of Haft-Cheshmeh. The NCRI also calls on the United Nations Security Council, the Secretary General, the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and all international human rights organizations to condemn this hideous crime. The NCRI appeals for urgent action to save the lives of other political prisoners, in particular those on death row and others who have disappeared.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 15, 2006