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

Javad Fatemi

About

Nationality: Iran
Religion: Presumed Muslim
Civil Status: Unknown

Case

Date of Killing: June 12, 1981
Location of Killing: Central Prison, Tabriz, Azarbaijan-e Sharqi Province, Iran
Mode of Killing: Shooting
Charges: Homosexual rape

About this Case

The execution of Mr. Javad Fatemi, son of Ebrahim, along with 4 other individuals, was announced in the communiqué of the Revolutionary Public Prosecution Office of Tabriz, and published in the Kayhan newspaper on June 13, 1981.

Arrest and detention

The circumstances of this defendant’s arrest and detention are not known.

Trial

No information is available on the defendant’s trial other than he was tried at the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Tabriz.

Charges

The charges brought individually against Mr. Fatemi are not known. According to the communiqué of the Revolutionary Public Prosecution Office, the collective charges brought against him and two other individuals were: “moral corruption, establishment of a corruption gang, and sodomy with innocent youth… whom they raped.”

The validity of the criminal charges brought against this defendant cannot be ascertained in the absence of the basic guarantees of a fair trial. International human rights organizations have drawn attention to reports indicating that the Islamic Republic’s authorities have brought trumped-up charges against their political opponents and executed them for drug trafficking, sexual, and other criminal offences. The exact number of people convicted based on trumped-up charges is unknown.

Evidence of guilt

The report of this execution only refers to “explicit and repeated confessions” regarding the evidence provided against Mr. Fatemi and his co-defendants.

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 National Television broadcasts 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

No information is available on his defense.

Judgment

The Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Tabriz condemned Mr. Javad Fatemi to death. He was executed by a firing squad along with 4 other individuals on June 12, 1981 at Tarbiz prison.

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