The men – who are all being held in Tehran’s Ghezel Hessar prison – wrote to Mr Ban and Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, to appeal for urgent action to have their sentences overturned.
In their letter of August 17, the wrote: “In 2011, the Iranian regime condemned twelve Sunni religious activists to death. Six of whom, Bahram Ahmadi (under 18 years old at the time of arrest), Kayvan Zand Karimi, Houshiar Mohammadi, Mohammad Zaher Bahmani, Asghar Rahimi and Behnam Rahimi have been executed and their bodies were not even returned to their families.
“At the same time, the Iranian regime and its security apparatus also condemned us to death since Sunnis in Iran have always been oppressed in politics, religion, science, economy and culture, and have never been permitted to live in peace. The Iranian regime has executed, sent into exile, or imprisoned both senior Sunnis and youths alike.
“We therefore call on you to take urgent action to condemn this inhumane policy by the regime. Our sentences may be carried out at any time. In the past eight years, over 200 Sunni religious-political activists from western Iran have been arrested and most of them have been condemned to long-term prison sentences. One-hundred and fifty of them are in Rajaei prison in Karaj, with another 20 condemned to death. This situation deserves urgent action by international and human rights organizations.”