2019 19 Dec
201- |
The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated for sanctions, two judges presiding over branches of the Iranian regime's Revolutionary Court who, for years, had punished Iranian citizens and dual-nationals for exercising their freedoms of expression or assembly. In many cases, these judges sentenced political prisoners to death. Through their respective branches of the Revolutionary Courts, Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghisseh oversaw the Iranian regime's miscarriage of justice in show trials in which journalists, attorneys, political activists, and members of Iran's ethnic and religious minority groups were penalized for exercising their freedom of expression and assembly and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, lashes, and even execution.
Both Salavati and Moghisseh had been sanctioned by the European Union for presiding over a series of show trials following the June 2009 Iranian presidential election, which imposed long prison sentences and several death sentences for political activists and journalists.
Moghisseh, Head of Tehran Revolutionary Court, Branch 28, had also pressed questionable charges against several members of Iran's Bahá'í religious minority, prosecuting them for supposed participation in activities such as propaganda against the state and assembly and collusion against national security, after they reportedly held prayer and worship ceremonies with other members. [US Dept of the Treasury; Iran Press Watch 30 June 2017]
As the Head of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Judge Abdolghassem Salavati had been responsible for multiple human rights violations by presiding over unfair trials, suppressing protests, persecuting ethnic and religious minorities, making excessive use of the death penalty, and issuing heavy prison sentences for activists. He had prosecuted and delivered harsh sentences, including many death sentences, to scores of political prisoners, human rights activists, and peaceful demonstrators, earning him the moniker "the Judge of Death." Salavati is responsible for executing prison sentences for Bahá'í professors on the basis of their faith after they were charged with national security-related charges for their work at a virtual Bahá'í university. [ifmat.org]
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Abolghassem Salavati; Mohammad Moghisseh; * Persecution, Iran; Washington, DC, USA; United States (USA); Iran |
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