Amid False Charges, Confessions Under Torture, Fake Evidence, Hamid Ghasemi Faces Imminent Execution

Political prisoner Hamid Ghasemi-Shall received the news of his sister’s sudden death simultaneously with the news of his death sentence having been sent to the enforcement division.

Mr. Khodabakhsh, the assistant prosecutor at Evin prison’s sentence enforcement division, confirmed that the death sentence of Hamid Ghasemi-Shall who has been incarcerated for four years, has been received by the enforcement division.

Hamid Ghasemi-Shall is accused receiving Canadian political asylum by being a supporter of the Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MEK/MKO), and soliciting information via email from his high ranked naval officer eldest brother.

The evidence used in issuing the death penalty for Hamid and his brother who died in prison after he received the death penalty, were emails that the Justice Ministry’s experts called fake and fabricated.

But the court, ignoring the testimony of the Justice Ministry’s experts, issued the death penalty based on the testimony of the military’s intelligence officers.

Hamid’s brother, Alborz Ghasemi, a prominent naval officer was trusted by Rear Admiral Sayari who is the author of more than twenty books in technical and military fields that are used in teaching the military’s naval division and Sepha’s (IRGC) officers.

To no avail, the Commander of the Fourth Naval Station, Rear Admiral Sayari tried to help in clearing up the misunderstandings in Alborz’s case.

The evidence of guilt in Ghasemi brothers’ case was based on fake and fabricated emails and confessions obtained under torture from Alborz Ghasemi, was disregarded by the presiding Judge at Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court, despite the fact that the emails in question were removed as evidence from the case due to technical flaws and their invalidity.

Hamid Ghasemi’s obtaining political asylum through voicing support for, and membership in, the Mojahedin Khalgh Organization was the pretext used in issuing the death sentence on Moharebeh charges (enmity against God) for the Ghasemi brothers. A membership that was never true and was only used by Hamid to accelerate obtaining an asylum visa.

Legally, due to doubts in the validity of the evidence (the emails) the maximum penalty should have not been issued in this case. Also, per jurisprudence decree by religious leaders, including Ayatollah Khamenei, seeking political asylum is not considered enmity against God. And most importantly according to lawyers, the removal of Article 186 from the new Islamic Penal Code which has already been approved, requires re-examining and review of the case of Ghasemi brothers.

The announcement made by the Sentence Enforcement Division that Hamid Ghasemi’s sentence may be carried out at anytime, comes despite the promise made last summer by Jafari-dowlatabadi (Tehran’s Public Prosecutor) while meeting with families of political prisoners, that this sentence will not be implemented.

Furthermore, after review of Hamid Ghasemi’s case file by presiding judge of Branch 31 of the Supreme Court, he confirmed that Hamid Ghasemi had not committed any crime. However, since he can not officially review the case and change the ruling, but per article 18 the defendant can prevent the enforcement of the sentence and request an appeal.

The news of the possible execution of Hamid Ghasemi, along with the news of his sister’s death, has brought an air of sadness to Ward 350’s prisoners.

Issuing an order to carry out this sentence comes as the judicial and the intelligence system know very well the charges against this person are false and he is innocent. But as in past years, in sacrificing of this person, they yet again serve the Mojahedin Khalgh Organization.

As Mir Hossein Mousavi had warned in his statement number seventeen, do not revive a dead cult for your own political and factional gains.

Source: Kalameh