Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Hajaghai, two Iranian political prisoners were hanged this morning in Tehran for cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.
Tehran Prosecutor’s Office announced that the two prisoners were members of an active network of the PMOI while preparing images and films of the post-election conflicts of the tenth presidential elections.
The announcement goes on to say that Mohammad Ali Hajaghai had confessed that he had travelled to Camp Ashraf, the PMOI base in Iraq several times and participated in a training course as well as having received $3,000 from the political organization.
Mohammad Ali Hajaghai had been arrested once before in 1983 for financial support of the PMOI and distributing their newsletter, the Prosecutor’s Office sates.
They add that he had intended to stay in Camp Ashraf but was turned down for his old age.
Mohammad Ali Hajaghai was arrested in summer of 2009 in a post-election demonstration and was sentenced to death last May for the charge of “moharebeh” (enmity against God).
His lawyer says: “In terms of the law, his charge cannot be enmity against God because the PMOI has been disarmed and therefore we argued in court that he cannot be charged with enmity against God.”
Tehran prosecutor’s office states that Jafar Kazemi, the other prisoner who was put to death today, was convicted of ties with the People’s Mojahedin Organization network in Iran as well as collecting funds and spreading propaganda for this organization and taking his son to Iraq.
Kazemi was also charged with filming post-election demonstrations and propaganda activities for the dissident group.
Iran considers the People’s Mojahedin Organization as one of its arch-enemies and any ties with the dissident group is immediately tuned into a charge of “Moharebeh” or enmity against God which carries the death penalty. The charge of enmity against God however in the Iranian penal law presupposes the existence of taking up arms against the state.
Rudabeh Akbari, Kazemi’s wife had said earlier that her husband was not a member of PMOI and had only taken pictures of the post-election demonstration like numerous other Iranian citizens.
She told the International Campaign for Human Rights that neither her, nor her husband’s lawyer were informed of the execution.
She insisted that they had no evidence against him except a few pictures he had taken from the demonstrations and added: “Even according to the constitution… the sentence for propagation against the regime is six to one year in prison.”
The prosecutor’s office maintains that the sentences of Hajaghai and Kazemi were issued in Tehran Revolutionary Courts in the presence of their respective lawyers and confirmed by the appellate court.
In the past months, the number of executions in Iran has suddenly surged and according to statistics released by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, 97 people were executed with the past month by the Islamic Republic.
