Kurdish Protester Mehdi Roshani Faces Execution After Confession Under Torture

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Mehdi Roshani, a Kurdish protester arrested in connection to the protest in Malekshahi on 6 January, has been sentenced to death on security-related charges. 

Mehdi Roshani was arrested at his home on 21 January and transferred to Tehran, where according to informed IHRNGO sources, he was subjected to severe torture to extract self-incriminating confessions.

According to one witness who saw Mehdi after he was transferred back from Tehran, “You would be horrified if you saw his body, not a single spot was left unharmed. His body was covered in electric shock and flogging marks but he had refused to confess.”

Mehdi was ultimately released on bail at the end of May. However, he was rearrested about two weeks later and has been held incommunicado since.

“About a month ago, his family was notified of the death sentence. They were told that he had been sentenced to death for charges including the murder of a policeman named Ehsan Aghajani. We don’t know what else he was subjected to in order to extract the confession,” the source added.

Ehsan Aghajani was reported to have been killed during the protest in Malekshahi on 6 January.

According to the source, Mehdi is from an economically marginalised family. “His family has been subjected to threats to remain silent. His parents don’t have smartphones, the people in Malekshahi have been kept in poverty and deprivation for decades. People took to the streets merely to demand their most fundamental rights.”