Sons of 2019 Iranian Protester on Death Row Implore for “Mercy”

The three sons of Abbas Daris, an Iranian man on death row over his participation in protests in 2019, have appeared on video urging the authorities to show “mercy,” amid concerns that the man’s execution may be imminent.

"We implore for forgiveness and mercy to save our father’s life,” one of the boys said in a video shared on social media. “His sentencing has already claimed the life of our mother, who suffered a fatal stroke."

"Our father is all we have left," the child added. 

In November 2019, more than 100 Iranian cities and towns were hit by protests sparked by a government's decision to raise gas prices, with many demonstrators chanting against the Iranian Republic.

Abbas Daris and his brother, Moshen, were arrested in the south-western city of Mahshahr on charges of "waging war against God, inciting disorder and participating in the murder of Reza Sayadi," a member of the special police forces known as NOPO.

The Mahshahr Revolutionary Court sentenced Daris to death, and his lawyer Fereshteh Tabanian said on July 10 that the Supreme Court upheld the sentence without giving any regard to objections she had filed in the case. 

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights said in a statement that Daris “is at serious risk of being executed in the very near future and the only way to save his life is to raise the political cost of his execution.”

"There’s no evidence against him but torture-tainted forced confessions,” he added. “His sentence is unlawful not only according to international laws but even according to the Islamic republic’s own laws.”

In an interview with the news website Didban Iran, Tabanian said that Daris rejected any involvement in the shooting, and outlined the "numerous flaws" in her client's case.

The lawyer said that the court based its verdict on the confession of a neighbor who was arrested with a weapon and claimed it belonged to Daris. 

The lawyer also said that the family of the deceased special force officer had given their consent to a pardon.

The Iranian security forces cracked down hard on the 2019 unrest, with human rights groups confirming the death of more than 320 citizens, including many children, in the protests. The Reuters news agency has estimated that the actual number of people killed was around 1,500.

Tanks and heavy weaponry were deployed in Mahshahr, where members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) encircled a group of mostly unarmed young demonstrators and opened fire, killing between 40 to 100 people, according to media reports.