AI – At the end of July, the Supreme Court reportedly upheld the death sentences against Nazem Bureihi, Mohammad Ali Sawari, Yahia Nasseri, Abdulzahra Helichi and Abdul-Imam Za’eri. Amnesty International is concerned that they are at risk of imminent execution.
The men were reportedly sentenced to death at the beginning of June by a Revolutionary Court in the city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province. They were charged with acting against national security, "waging war against God" ("mohareb") and carrying out bombings in Ahvaz, which took place between June and October 2005. No details of which bombings they were alleged to have participated in were made public nor was the exact date of their execution revealed.
Amnesty International currently has no further information about Yahia Nasseri, Abdulzahra Helichi and Abdul-Imam Za’eri. However, Mohammad Ali Sawari was reportedly arrested on or around 4 November 2005. Nazem Bureihi has reportedly been in custody since 2000 having been arrested on charges of "insurgency". Though he was serving a 35 year prison sentence, he was among nine men shown on Khuzestan Provincial TV on 1 March 2006, "confessing" to involvement in the October 2005 bombings.
Given the secretive nature of the trials in Iran, the current stage of the legal proceedings against the other men is unclear to Amnesty International.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Much of Iran’s Arab community lives in the province of Khuzestan which borders Iraq. It is strategically important because it is the site of much of Iran’s oil reserves, but the Arab population does not feel it has benefited as much from the oil revenue as the Persian population. Historically, the Arab community has been marginalised and discriminated against. Tension has mounted among the Arab population since April 2005, after it was alleged that the government planned to disperse the country’s Arab population or to force them to relinquish their Arab identity. Hundreds have been arrested and there have been reports of torture.
Following bomb explosions in Ahvaz City in June and October 2005, which killed at least 14 people, and explosions at oil installations in September and October, the cycle of violence has intensified, with hundreds of people reportedly arrested. Further bombings on 24 January 2006, in which at least six people were killed, were followed by further mass arrests. Two men, Mehdi Nawaseri and Ali Awdeh Afrawi, were executed in public on 2 March after they were convicted of involvement in the October bombings. Their executions followed unfair trials before a Revolutionary Court during which they are believed to have been denied access to lawyers, and their confessions, along with those of seven other men, were broadcast on television.