Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Abdolreza Navaseri

About

Age: 35
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Shi'a)
Civil Status: Single

Case

Date of Killing: September 11, 2007
Location of Killing: Karun Prison, Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Hanging
Charges: War on God; Acting against state's security

About this Case

“One of the wonders of the Iranian Judiciary is that it can accuse a person of carrying out bombings while he’s in prison,That lays bare the arbitrariness of his conviction.”

Human Rights Watch

News of Mr. Abdolreza Navaseri’s execution was published in numerous sources, including Amnesty International (September 13, 2007), Ahvaz Human Rights Organization (September 14, 2007), and Radio Farda (September 13, 2007). Quoting the Ahvaz prosecutor, the IRNA and ISNA news agencies published news of the execution of three individuals (September 13, 2007), without mention of their names. Additional information regarding this case was obtained from an interview by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation with two individuals accused in the case, which has been referred to as “the Ahvaz bombings case” by Iranian authorities, including a prison mate (“ABF Interview”) and from other sources.*

Additional information regarding this case was obtained from an interview by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation with two other individuals accused in the Ahvaz unrests, including a prison mate (“ABF Interview”) and from other sources.*

Mr. Navaseri was thirty-five years old, single, and was from Ahvaz. According to one of his friends and prison mates, he was dignified, polite, and disciplined. He conducted Koran and Arabic calligraphy classes in prison and was considered popular at Karun Prison. Mr. Navaseri believed in armed struggle against the Islamic Republic for the rights of ethnic Arabs but considered it’s use permissible only against military and economic targets. He was against the killing of civilians. He was a member of a group that had bombed certain military centers and oil pipelines in the Ahvaz region in the late 1990’s. (ABF Interview). In 2000, Mr. Navaseri was arrested and subsequently sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for the bombing of Ahvaz’ Daghagheleh oil pipeline and for the attack against the Badr Force headquarters. (Radio Farda, September 13, 2007). He had been serving his sentence at [the city of] Tabas Prison. He was Mehdi Navaseri’s elder brother, who had been executed on March 2, 2006, for the bombing of Naderi Street in Ahvaz’.

Mr. Navaseri, along with Mohammad Ali Savari and Ja’far Savari were the fifth group of Khuzestan Province ethnic Arabs who were executed in Ahvaz, in connection with the 2005 bombings and unrest. The sentence and execution issued for this group of individuals prompted numerous reactions from the attorneys in the case, the Association for the Protection of Prisoners’ Rights, as well as international organizations such as Amnesty International (May 17 and June 29, 2006) and Human Rights Watch (June 26 and November 11, 2006). In a resolution issued on December 19, 2006, the UN General Assembly expressed grave concern about widespread human rights abuses, the use of torture and execution in Iran, and, more particularly, regarding discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities. The open publication of seven of the Ahvaz bombing defendants’ attorneys resulted in their prosecution on the charge of endangering national security in Ahvaz. (ILNA, October 7, 2006). The attorneys’ trial was supported by the UN Special Rapporteurs’ objections. (UN website, January 10, 2007).

Historical Background of the Ahvaz Bombing

Subsequent to the publication of a letter ascribed to a government official concerning systematic modification of the fabric of Khuzestan Province’s ethnic Arab population, demonstrations broke out on Friday, April 15, 2005, in [the city of] Ahvaz, and then in [the town of] Hamidideh. In quashing the demonstrations, security and police forces resorted to violence, which led to the death and injury of dozens of protestors and resulted in the protests and the unrest spreading to a number of other Khuzestan cities, continuing for at least 10 days.**These protests were the beginning of a series of incidents, including widespread arrests, multiple bombings, and successive executions in Ahvaz. For instance, a series of bombings followed on June 12 and October 15, 2005, and on January 24 and February 27, 2006, in various regions of Ahvaz, Abadan, and Dezful. These bombings were carried out in front of government buildings and in public places and left in their wake more than 20 dead and dozens injured.***According to government sources, other bombings (targeting oil pipelines and non-residential regions around Ahvaz) occurred at the end of summer and in the fall of 2005, which did not leave any casualties.

In response to the Ahvaz bombings, security forces arrested dozens of the region’s ethnic Arab individuals, charging them with participation in the bombings. They were then kept in solitary confinement cells, for months, at the Information Ministry’s Detention Center. People being held were subjected to torture, in order to confess having taken part in the bombings. According to the Ahvaz Prosecutor, ultimately a total of four cases were opened at the Revolutionary Court, Special Branch, and at least 45 individuals were charged. Dozens of these individuals were tried in closed sessions and were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court. At least 20 of these sentences were carried out. Dozens of other Arab citizens were given long-term sentences.

Government officials never accepted that these bombings had internal reasons which had arisen following the Khuzestan incidents. In multiple, and sometimes contradictory, statements, political and judicial authorities imputed responsibility to groups opposing [the Islamic Republic], including, “Those loyal to the previous regime and residing in England;” “Fugitive SAVAK (the Shah’s security and intelligence apparatus) members, and family members of the destroyed Monafeqin (MKO);” “Wahabis;” “secessionists;” and/or to groups affiliated with the UK and other foreign countries. The Iranian government officially accused the UK of involvement in the bombings and declared that the bombers had been trained in Iraq, in regions under British army control, where they had acquired their arms and explosives. In one such statement, then-President Mahmud Ahmadinejad spoke of the clear and obvious footprint of Iraq’s occupiers in the Khuzestan incidents. (ISNA, January 25, 2006). The British government officially denied these accusations and expressed its concern regarding such statements made by Iranian officials. (BBC, November 1, 2005).

The televised confessions of a number of those arrested were broadcast several times on local TV and on Iran’s English language, Press TV. In one of these programs, broadcast on local TV on November 13, 2006, 10 of these individuals declared themselves to be members of “Katibeh Shohadaye Mohiuddin Al Nasser,” (“Mohiuddin Al Nasser Martyrs Brigade,”) or (the military wing of the Al-Nazal movement). No group officially accepted responsibility for the Ahvaz bombings. However, a video recording was distributed in the name of Katibeh Shohadaye Mohiuddin Al Nasser and “Harakat Al-Nazal Al-Arabi Le-Tahrir Al-Ahvaz (“Ahvaz Arabic Liberation Movement”), showing some of the bombings, including the explosion in front of the Natural Resources Organization building and oil pipeline explosions. At a later time, Harakat Al-Nazal officially accepted responsibility for some of the oil pipeline explosions.

Arrest and Detention

Mr. Navaseri was arrested in Ahvaz by security forces in 2000. After spending a few months at the Information Administration’s detention center, he was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment and transferred to Tabas Prison. According to one of his prison mates at Karun Prison, he went on leave for a few days in 2005, a little after the March-April protests in Ahvaz. At the time of the Ahvaz bombings, he was serving his sentence at Tabas Prison. In spite of that, however, he was transferred by security forces from Tabas Prison to the Ahvaz Information Administration’s detention center. He was kept in solitary confinement, along with other individuals accused in the Ahvaz unrest. During that time, he constantly underwent physical and psychological torture. They were not allowed time in the prison yard and were deprived of contact and visitation with their families. In late June, 2006, Mr. Navaseri and a number of other defendants in the case were transferred to the Karun Prison, Ward 3. (ABF Interview).

Trial

There is no detailed information about Mr. Navaseri’s trial. Certain Arab activists doubt that there even was a second trial. According to one of his prison mates, however, the Ahvaz Islamic Revolutionary Court, Branch Three, tried Mr. Abdolreza Navaseri on May 30, 2006, in a closed session without any witnesses present. (ABF Interview). Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch announced his trial date to have been June 7, 2006. (June 26, 2006). There is no information on whether or not an attorney was present in said court. Mr. Baqi, however, has stated that there were court-appointed attorneys for some of the defendants at trial. (BBC, June 21).

Charges

The charge made against Mr. Navaseri - at his first trial, in 2000 - was “The Bombing of Ahvaz’ Daghagheleh oil pipeline and attacking the Badr Force headquarters.” (Radio Farda, September 13, 2007). It is not known whether his trial was based on the same charge from June 2006 or whether new charges were brought against him. According to Mr. Saleh Nikbakht, attorney for some of the defendants in the Ahvaz bombings case, however, the charge against the defendants in the case was “Moharebeh” (“waging war against God”). (Human Rights Watch, June 26, 2006).

The validity of the criminal charges brought against this defendant cannot be ascertained in the absence of the basic guarantees of a fair trial.

Evidence of Guilt

There is no precise information regarding evidence presented at trial. However, according to official judicial and security authorities, the defendants’ confessions constituted the basis for the court’s judgment. According to one of his prison mates, security agents had told Mr. Navaseri that the type of bomb used in the Naderi Street explosion in Ahvaz’ (on October 15, 2005,) was similar to hand-made bombs he had used in 2000 to explode the oil pipeline. (ABF Interview).

International human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its systematic use of severe torture and solitary confinement to obtain confessions from detainees and have questioned the authenticity of confessions obtained under duress. In the case of political detainees, these confessions are, at times, televised. The state television broadcast confessions during which prisoners plead guilty to vague and false charges, repent and renounce their political beliefs, and/or implicate others. Human rights organizations have also pointed to the pattern of retracted confessions by those prisoners who are freed.

Defense

There is no information about the defendant’s case. According to available information, however, Mr. Navaseri was not given the opportunity for an effective defense. At the time of the 2005 bombings, he was serving his 35-year sentence at Tabas Prison. According to his prison mates, he was categorically opposed to bombings that resulted in civilian deaths and had stated that his prior confessions had been obtained under duress and torture by his interrogators and had denied them in court. (ABF Interview).

Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch considered Mr. Navaseri’s re-trial incredible and arbitrary: “One of the wonders of the Iranian Judiciary is that it can accuse a person of carrying out bombings while he’s in prison,” said Whitson. “That lays bare the arbitrariness of his conviction.” (November 11, 2006).

In May-June 2006, seven defense attorneys in the case objected to the course of the proceedings in an open letter to the head of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court, Branch Three. They had been apprised of the trial date only one or two days prior to such date, at most, whereas the law requires that they be so informed at least five days in advance. They further stated that they had not had the time to read, study, and take notes of 800 pages of case files in such a short period. Further, that in spite of repeated written and oral requests, the court had not authorized them to meet privately with their clients and that trial sessions had been conducted individually, without the other defendants and their attorneys present, which was against the law. The defense attorneys declared that, “… in the event that their legal requests are not granted, they would leave the courtroom in protest of the unethical and non-judicial manner of adjudication.” (Attorneys, letter).

In an interview with the BBC, the head of the Organization for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights pointed to letters in the prisoners’ own handwritings, stamped by the prison, in which they have declared that they were forced to confess under duress. (Morning Show, June 26, 2006). In another interview, with ILNA, Mr. Baqi objected to the fact that a 28- or 30–year-old judge, without sufficient [and proper] education [and experience] was given the power to decide whether the defendants lived or died. He emphasized that, even applying accepted legal and religious norms of the Islamic Republic itself, such death sentences should not have been issued. (ILNA, June 25, 2006).

Three U.N. Special Rapporteurs sent two letters to the Islamic Republic officials in August and November 2006, demanding clarifications regarding the Ahvaz bombing defendants’ claims of torture and unfair trial. The government did not, however, reply to these letters. (U.N. Human Rights website, January 10, 2007).

Three of the individuals accused in the Ahvaz bombing case testified, in an interview with the Boroumand Foundation, that the prison guards in bombing cases applied severe physical and psychological torture in order to elicit incriminating confessions about themselves and the other accused individuals. According to them, a team had come from Tehran for the purpose of making videotaped confessions and that the defendants had been subjected to pressure and beatings for several nights in order to show their “confessions” on film. (ABF Interview).

Decision

In the 2000 trial, Mr. Abdolreza Navaseri was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment in exile in Tabas. According to Human Rights Watch, on June 8, 2006, the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court, Branch Three, sentenced Mr. Navaseri to death. This sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in July-August of that same year. (Human Rights Watch, November 11, 2006).

On September 11, 2007, Mr. Navaseri was hanged in Karun Prison along with Jafar and Mohammad Ali Savari. One week prior to the sentence being carried out, prison authorities transferred Mr. Navaseri and two other individuals to solitary confinement to implement the sentence. A large crowd having gathered outside Karun Prison, however, the implementation was delayed and Mr. Navaseri was returned to the general ward. One week later, he was taken to solitary and executed the next morning. (ABF Interview).

Mr. Navaseri’s body was not turned over to his family and, according to local sources, was buried by security agents in Ahvaz’ village of Beravayeh. Security agents did not allow Mr. Navaseri’s family to hold an official wake for him.

---------------------------------

*Sources
IRNA (March 1, 2006 and September 13, 2007), ISNA (January 25, 2006 and September 13, 2007), ILNA (June 25, July 25, October 7, and November 18, 2006), Radio France (February 15, 2007), Radio Farda (June 15 and 21, 2006), BBC Parsian (November 1, 2005, June 21 and 26, 2006 and September 13, 2007), Padmaz (April 12, 2014), Amnesty International (May 17, June 29, November 13, and December 24, 2006), Amnesty International (January 10, January 15, and September 13, 2007), U.N. Human Rights website (January 10, 2007), Human Rights Watch (June 26 and November 11, 2006, and February 15, 2007), Rooz Online (November 20, 2006), Ahwaz News Agency (February 13 and September 14, 2007), Emadoddin Baqi Website (June 15, 18, 21, 23 and 26, 2006), Iran Newspaper (March 2, 2007), and the Kayhan Newspaper(July 30, 2006).

** A Summary of the Khuzestan Protests on April 2005
Subsequent to the publication of a letter dated July 24, 1998, ascribed to then-President Khatami’s Chief of Staff, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, demonstrations protesting the letter broke out on Friday, April 15, 2005, first in [the city of] Ahvaz, and then in other cities, such as Mahshahr and Hamidideh, and continued for several days. The letter emphasized the modification of Khuzestan Province’s ethnic Arab population through promotion and encouragement of the migration of non-native populations to the province, [thus] reducing Khuzestan’s Arab population to one third of the total population of the province. Although the government’s spokesperson officially denied [the existence of] this letter on Saturday, April 16, the demonstrations that had been called for by the “Coordination Committee for Popular Protests in Ahvaz” continued extensively in the coming days. In calling for demonstrations, [the organizers] highlighted various factors, including “the central government’s policies in expropriating Arab farmers’ lands for various projects such as sugar cane development,” and “marginalization of, as well as profound discontent among, Khuzestan’s Arab [population], as a result of the regime’s efforts to obliterate Arab identity.”
The demonstrations that had started in Kui-e Alavi (Shelangabad /Da’ereh), one of [the city of] Ahvaz’s poor neighborhoods, quickly spread to the center of Ahvaz and to the cities of Mahshahr and Hamidieh. Citing Ahvaz News (a regional news organization) and eyewitnesses at the scene, the Ahvaz Human Rights Organization’s bulletin, dated April 15, 2005, stated, “Around three thousand Arab people of Ahvaz have gathered together and started extensive but peaceful demonstrations in Kordovani Street and Square, along with thousands of others in neighborhoods such as Shelangabad, Malashieh, Ameri, and Kut Abdollah, among others. Security forces are attacking the demonstrators, first with tear gas, and are subsequently firing on them in Da’ereh and Malashieh neighborhoods.” The degree of violence resorted to by security and police forces in quashing the demonstrations was such that it led to the death of a number of protestors. Dozens more were injured. Subsequent to these deaths, the intensity and magnitude of the protests increased. In a number of towns, demonstrators proceeded to cut off roads and to occupy government buildings and police posts. These protests continued for ten days in many Arab regions of Khuzestan. Protestors demanded a government apology to the region’s Arabs. Official government sources, quoting the Islamic Republic’s Defense Minister, announced the death toll as standing at three or four. (ISNA, April 19, 2005) Civil society activists, however, declared the number of people killed during these events to be between 50 and 60. Amnesty International stated the number as 29; Human Rights Watch, 50; and the Ahvaz Human Rights Organization, 160. Dozens of others were injured. The Ahvaz General and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office announced the arrest and arraignment of 447 individuals. (IRNA, April 25, 2005) Local sources, however, announced the number as being greater than 1200. A number of intellectuals and ethnic leaders were among those arrested. Although the demonstrations subsided after ten days, widespread arrests, multiple bombings, successive executions, and popular protests continued on various occasions, including the anniversary of the events.

***Ahvaz Bombings in 2005 and 2006:
June 12, 2005:  Four explosions occurred in front of the Governor’s building, the Planning and Budget Organization building, the Housing and Urban Development Organization building, and in a residential neighborhood, leaving at least 8 dead and 98 injured.
September 1, 2005:  The bombing of oil installations and two pipelines in the Zargan region of Ahvaz.
October 15, 2005:  Two explosions occurred prior to Iftar, in the month of Ramadan, at two locations on Salman Farsi (Naderi) Street, leaving at least 6 dead and 100 injured.
January 24, 2006:  Bombings at Saman Bank --  in the Kianpars neighborhood of Ahvaz and at the Khuzestan Province Natural Resources General Administration building --  left at least 6 dead and 45 injured (certain reports indicating 8 or 9 dead).
February 27, 2006:  Bombings at the Governor’s buildings in the cities of Dezful and Abadan left 4 injured.

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