"Since My Arrest, They Say They’ll Execute Me", Iranian Sentenced To Death Says

In an audio file received by IranWire, a 26-year-old Iranian sentenced to death and confined in the Greater Tehran Prison (Fashafouyeh), narrates his ordeal while in custody.

Sahand Nourmohammadzadeh, was arrested in early October during protests in the capital and was sentenced to death two months later on the charge of “fighting against God” for allegedly attempting to break the guardrail of a highway and setting fire to a trash can. The basis for issuing the sentence was a video in which he cannot be seen breaking a guardrail or setting a fire.

In the audio file, Nourmohammadzadeh rejects the allegations against him. He also says that, due to pressure exerted on him by his interrogator and the judge, he was forced to admit guilt and sign papers without even reading them.

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Nourmohammadzadeh was arrested on October 4 on Ashrafi Esfahani Highway. In the audio file, in which the operator repeats that the call was made from the Greater Tehran Prison, he says that from the moment of his arrest he was told he would be execute.

"They first took me one street next to my house and blindfolded and handcuffed me. After a few minutes, they opened my blindfold to unlock my cell phone because it can be unlocked with Face ID. They searched my phone and found nothing. There were no videos, photos or anything related to the protests. But they said, We will make you miss this street, we will execute you'."

Nourmohammadzadeh says that when he was transferred to the prosecutor's office, the on-call judge prevented him from speaking and from reading the papers he was signing.

During his detention, Nourmohammadzadeh spent a few days in a solitary cell of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detention center and in a "safe house", before being transferred to the Greater Tehran prison and again to the IRGC detention center for interrogation.

He says that in the first days of the interrogation, when he asked the interrogator to be allowed to call his mother, he was told she had suffered a stroke.

"The interrogator said, 'Write down what I’m saying, and I will let you call'. He dictated and I wrote. He said, ‘Write: I called people to come and remove the guardrail, and they remove it’…I wrote everything he said because I thought my mother's condition was serious and had a stroke".

Nourmohammadzadeh explains that he didn't break the guardrail or set fire to the trash can: "I just kicked the trash can twice and moved the guardrail, but unfortunately the video does not show I did not break the guardrail”.

Nourmohammadzadeh says his jailers harassed him so much in the IRGC detention center that he was happy to be transferred to the Greater Tehran Prison: "They harassed me mentally. They blindfolded me, they said it was time to execute me, let's go down. I was very scared. I didn't know they were going to take me for a break."

In another part of the audio file, he says he asked an investigator the meaning of "Moharebeh" (fighting against God), the charge he faced. But the investigator just answered, “It means the things you did”. Nourmohammadzadeh learnt that the charge carries a death sentence when he spoke to other inmates.

Later, a prosecutor said in his presence, “I can see from his face what he has done. Execute him”.

“The prosecutor showed me a file that was not related to my case at all. He said, 'Is this you? You should be executed’!", Nourmohammadzadeh said.

He quotes an interrogator as telling him “I swear to God, if you cooperate and give an interview, I will release you on Saturday”.

“They blindfolded me, took me to another place, which was a prayer hall. He said, ‘Give an interview,' and they filmed it. I told the truth, I didn't say that I broke the guardrail or set fire to a trash can because I really didn't. I told the truth and I thought they would really release me on Saturday."