Iranian authorities executed two political prisoners, Ali Saremi and AliAkbar Siadat, for the charge of “enmity against God”, at Evin Prison today.
Ali Saremi was accused of membership in People’s Mojahedin Organization and Ali Akbar Siadat was charged with links to and activities for Israeli secret services.
According to Islamic Republic media, the 62-year-old Ali Saremi was first arrested in the early 1980s and handed a three year suspended sentence for supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization. He was later arrested against for the same charge in 1988 and his death sentence was reduced to 10 years by Qom Supreme Court.
He was accused of travelling to Ashraf Camp in Iraq where People’s Mojahedin Organization has been based since the Iran-Iraq War. Iranian authorities claim that after this trip, he became more active in connection with the People’s Mojahedin Organization which the Islamic Republic considers as one of its arch-enemies.
Human Rights websites on the other hand cite Ali Saremi’s wife who claims that she travelled to Ashraf Camp with her husband to visit their son in 2005 which led to a year’s imprisonment for Saremi.
She adds that her husband was released after a year and again arrested in 2007 while attending a commemoration service for the mass execution of political prisoners of 1989, and had been in prison since then.
Ali Saremi was transferred yesterday from RejaiShahr Prison to Evin and executed today at 1:30 pm. Iranian Human Rights Activists report that Saremi’s family adn a number of other supporters had gathered in front of Evin Prison last night but the security forces arrested his wife and child along with a number of the other gatherers.
Zeynab Saremi, the daughter of Ali Saremi, informed the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her family and their lawyer were not informed of the execution and only her father’s inmates had informed them of the possibility of the execution being carried out.
The other executed prisoner, AliAkbar Siadat was accused of collaboration with Israeli secret services in exchange for $60,000.
State reports regarding Siadat maintains that he was arrested in 2008 while trying to “flee” the country when he was arrested and his links to Israel were discovered on his cellphone.
The report contends that Siadat “confessed” to getting in touch with Israel embassy during his business trips abroad and supplying them with classified military information.
Since espionage cases are carried out in complete secrecy, there are no independent reports regarding AliAkbar Siadat.
On Sunday, Tehran Prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi announced that a prisoner had been sentenced to death for the charge of espionage.
Following the post-election protests, the Islamic Republic has become more eager in processing execution sentences for political prisoners and the opposition has accused the establishment of using the death penalty as a tool for the intimidation of protesters.
