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 About
Age 26 Nationality Iran Religion Islam (Shi'a) Civil status — Education high school diploma Occupation university student Rank/Position — Affiliation armed group, Islamic revolutionary Affiliation educational establishment
Case Date of execution March 10, 1985 Location Sari, Iran Mode of execution shooting Charges Membership of anti-regime guerilla group; Murder; Possession of arms About this Case
The execution of Mr. Mojtaba Afsardir, along with 14 others, was announced in a statement by the Intelligence Office of Mazandaran. The communiqué was published in the Kayhan daily on March 11, 1985. Additional information has been provided (sent to Omid through electronic forms) by individuals familiar with this case. According to the available information, Mr. Afsardir was born in Abadan in 1958. He was a student at Babolsar University (Mazandaran province), and a member of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization.
The statement of the Intelligence Office of Mazandaran reads:
“In the Name of God
“Due to the favors of God and the wise advice of our respectful Imam about ending the Forest commotion, as well as the continuous efforts and sacrifices of the Islamic Revolution’s Revolutionary Guards, the hellish spidery organization of the hypocrites was destroyed in the verdant forests of Mazandaran. And all the partisans of arrogance were seized by the wrath of the avenging and omnipotent God. Away from their fugitive leaders, the traitors abroad, and their treacherous clamor, all the members were captured by the valiant men of Islam...”
Arrest and detention
According to the received electronic forms, Mr. Afsardir probably was arrested in 1983 or 84. A few months before his execution, he had occasional visits with his family at the Revolutionary Guards station in Sari.
Trial
No information is available on the defendant’s trial.
Charges
The statement of Intelligence Office of Mazandaran does not specify the charges against Mr. Afsardir. All 14 defendants are collectively charged with: “membership in the hypocrites organization (term used for the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization by the Islamic Republic authorities), martyring an unarmed shepherd who refused to collaborate with them with a knife and poniard - not shooting him in order not to waste a bullet-, martyring 6 members of Basij (Mobilization Forces) of Qaemshahr cruelly while they were asleep, as well as committing tens of crimes resulting in 21 martyrs and 23 wounded.”
Evidence of guilt
There is no evidence presented in the communiqué that specifically incriminates Mr. Afsardir. According to the communiqué all the defendants were implicated through both their confessions during the trial in front of the families of those killed, and weapons found during search and seizure by the revolutionary guards. The report explains: “upon searching the shelters of the defendants, the revolutionary guards found: “tens of war weapons, military grenades, cyanide, ‘se rahi’ (kind of explosive), walkie-talkies, and two military compasses, in addition to, many cartridges.” There is no mention of the specifics of these confessions.
Defense
No information is available on Mr. Afsardir’s defense.
Judgment
Mr. Afsardir was sentenced to death. There is no information about the tribunal which issued the death sentence. The sentenced was confirmed by the Supreme Judicial Council. Mr. Mojtana Afsardir was executed by a firing squad at dawn on March 10, 1985 in Sari.
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Human rights violations in this caseThe legal context
Read about the courts, the judges, and the procedure. The courts
Special courts, known as the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunals, were set up after the February 1979 revolution. Their jurisdiction encompasses a wide array of offences ranging from association with or support of the former regime, promotion of foreign influence, and enmity with the revolution to possession, use or sales of narcotic drugs, murder, and profiteering. In the 1980s, a penal court, presided over by one judge, was created to handle some of the offenses punishable by death, such as theft or adultery. These tribunals’ decisions must be confirmed by a chamber of the Supreme Judicial Council.
The judges
Prosecutors and judges are not necessarily jurists. By 1981, the judiciary was purged of judges trained in law schools. They were replaced by seminary graduates and students, as well as by political appointees (an estimated 2000 by 1989). Since by law judges are only required to have a high school diploma and must be faithful to the Islamic Republic’s tenets, new recruits often have little formal training in the law and are chosen because of their political affiliation.
The procedure
The procedures of these ecclesiastical tribunals fail to meet the minimum guarantees for fair trial as established by international human rights instruments and by sha’ria (the Islamic system of law). In addition to executions ordered by revolutionary tribunals, extra-judicial executions are carried out, targeting dissidents and opposition leaders. In some cases, both inside and outside of Iran, these executions have been traced back to Iranian officials. It is, however, not known if in these particular cases trials are held in absentia.
Sources (Among others): Amnesty International, Law and Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, February 1980; Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, The Justice System of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1992; E/CN.4/1989/26 p.14; UNCHR, Resolution 1984/54 , Abolition of Torture - Iran - 1; 28 November 1984; Report on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Special Representative of the Commission, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, 28 January 1987. Amnesty International, A SHOCKED WORLD WATCHES IN DISBELIEF, VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1987-1990. Memoirs of Ayatollah Khalkhali, religious judge and former head of revolutionary tribunals (2001), and Ayatollah Montazeri, dismissed successor to Ayatollah Khomeini (2001). UNCH, E/CN.4/1994/50, Final report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran prepared by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, pursuant to Commission resolution 1993/62 of 10 March 1993 and Economic and Social Council decision 1993/273. E/CN.4/1994/50, 2 February 1994.
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 close... Detentions, interrogations, and trials: 1981-1988
Read about the conditions in which individuals were detained, tried and sentenced. Pre-trial detentions
The accused were held, sometimes without being charged, for months or years in overcrowded prisons. During their detention, prisoners of conscience, and in particular supporters of political opposition groups or members of religious or ethnic minorities, were routinely subject to physical and psychological torture. Interrogators used torture, authorized by the post-revolutionary law of Ta’zir (Discretionary Punishment Law), to obtain confessions of guilt or to induce repentance. The line between trial and interrogation was often blurred by the fact that the same individual would function as prosecutor, interrogator and judge.
Trials
Executed detainees may or may not have been tried formally. Prisoners of conscience were often tried through a summary process that might have lasted only a few minutes. When disclosed, charges facing the defendants were often vague or based on coerced confessions. Defendants had no access to attorneys, and they might not have been allowed to defend themselves.
Appeal processes
Convicts could not appeal their sentence and were often executed shortly after their conviction. Their execution was not necessarily announced.
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close... Based on the available information, the following human rights have been violated in this case:
The right to liberty and security of the person. The right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 9.1. The right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.
UDHR, Article 19; ICCPR, Article 19.1 and ICCPR, Article 19.2. The right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of one’s interests.
UDHR, Article 20; ICCPR, Article 22.1.
The right to due process
The right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a competent and impartial tribunal in accordance with law.
ICCPR, Article 14.1 and Article 14.2. Pre-trial detention rights
The right to know promptly and in detail the nature and cause of the charges against one. UDHR, Article 9(2); ICCPR, Article 9.2 and Article 14.3.a The right to counsel of one’s own choosing or the right to legal aid. The right to communicate with one’s attorney in confidence
ICCPR, Article 14.3.b and Article 14.3.d; Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Article 1, Article 2, Article 5, Article 6, and Article 8. The right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defense case. ICCPR, Article 14.3.b.
The right not to be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess to guilt.
ICCPR, Article 14.3.g.
The right not to be subjected to torture and to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.
Trial rights
The right to a fair and public trial without undue delay.
ICCPR, Article 14.1, Article 14.3.c.
The right to defense through an attorney or legal aid. The right to examine, or have examined, the witnesses against one, and the right to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on one’s behalf under the same conditions as prosecution witnesses.
ICCPR, Article 14.3.d and Article 14.3.e. The right to have the decision rendered in public.
ICCPR, Article 14.1. ICCPR, Article 14.7.
Judgment rights
Capital punishment
The inherent right to life, of which no one shall be arbitrarily deprived.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 6.1; Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, Article 1.1, Article 1.2. The right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.
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