URGENT APPEAL for dual Iranian-Canadian Hamid Ghassemi-Shall at imminent risk of execution in Iran

A man with dual Iranian-Canadian nationality, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, appears to be at imminent risk of execution. His family was told on 15 April that his death sentence had been passed to the body within the Judiciary that carries out executions.

Hamid Ghassemi-Shall was arrested on 24 May 2008 while visiting his elderly mother in Iran. His older brother, Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, have been arrested about two weeks earlier. Both brothers were held in solitary confinement without legal representation, in Tehran's Evin prison for 18 months; in November 2009 the brothers were transferred to a section of the prison holding other prisoners.

On 29 December 2008 both men were sentenced to death following an unfair trial by a Revolutionary Court. They were convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) for espionage and cooperation with the proscribed People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). Amnesty International understands that the evidence used against the brothers during trial included a "confession" and an email the authorities alleged Hamid Ghassemi-Shall had sent to his brother Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, who had previously worked as a mechanical engineer in the Iranian army, which he denied sending. On 7 November 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence. In January 2010 Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, who was suffering from stomach cancer, died in prison.

Hamid Ghassemi-Shall have said that while in Evin Prison, before he had access to legal representation, he was under "extreme pressure" to "confess". "Confessions" made under torture are frequently accepted as evidence in Iranian courts, violating the right to a fair trial. The Iranian authorities had previously threatened to arrest the brothers' sister Mahin Ghassemi-Shall, who has since died, for speaking out on behalf of her brother.

Please write immediately in Persian, English or your own language:

- Urging the Iranian authorities to stop the execution of Hamid Ghassemi-Shall;

- Urging them to retry him in proceedings which fully comply with international fair trial standards and without recourse to the death penalty;

- Calling on them to ensure that Hamid Ghassemi-Shall is given immediate and regular access to his family, his lawyer and any necessary medical treatment.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 7 JUNE 2012 TO:

Leader of the Islamic Republic

Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei

The Office of the Supreme Leader

Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street

Tehran

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Email: info_leader@leader.ir

Twitter: "Call on #Iran leader @khamenei_ir to halt the execution of Hamid Ghassemi-Shall"

Salutation: Your Excellency

Head of the Judiciary

Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani

[Care of] Public Relations Office

Number 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection

Tehran

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com (Subject

Line: FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani)

Salutation: Your Excellency

And copies to:

Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights

Mohammad Javad Larijani

High Council for Human Rights

[Care of] Office of the Head of the Judiciary

Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave. south of Serah-e Jomhouri

Tehran 1316814737

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Email: info@humanrights-iran.ir (subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani

**Iran does not presently have an embassy in the United States. Instead, please send copies to:

Iranian Interests Section

c/o Embassy of Pakistan

2209 Wisconsin Ave NW

Washington DC 20007

Tel: 1 202 965 4990 -OR- 1 202 965-4991

Fax: 1 202 965 1073

Email: requests@daftar.org

Please check with AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Hamid Ghassemi-Shall's wife, Antonella Mega, who lives in Canada, told Amnesty International on 20 April 2012 that her husband had called her on 15 April, and told her that his mother and his sister, Parvin Ghassemi-Shall, had been allowed to visit him at Evin Prison earlier that day. They had met in the office of a judge from the Office for the Implementation of Sentences. His mother and sister told him that another sister, Mahin Ghassemi-Shall, had died following an illness. The judge, who was present, immediately told the grieving family that Hamid Ghassemi-Shall's death sentence was "on his table" and that he was awaiting orders from Tehran Province's Chief Prosecutor to carry out Hamid Ghassemi-Shall's execution.

There were serious flaws in the fairness of the brothers' trial. They were held for months undergoing interrogation but without access to legal representation. Access to a lawyer from the outset of detention is essential to ensuring a fair trial. International fair trial standards require that anyone accused of a serious crime has access to a lawyer not only during the trial itself, but also immediately on arrest and throughout all subsequent proceedings, in particular in cases of offences carrying the death penalty. At the beginning of their interrogation and in court, the brothers denied the charges and the only evidence produced in the trial appears to have been the disputed email and a "confession" made by Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, apparently under duress, that he had obtained confidential military information from his brother. Under international law, no one should be forced to confess guilt; international law also prohibits the use of confessions extracted under torture as evidence except against those who carry out such torture.

The brothers were sentenced to death on the basis of Article 186 of Iran's Penal Code. It states that members and supporters of a group which has "waged armed struggle against the Islamic State are regarded to be moharebs provided they know the position of that group; are in active pursuit of their aims while the central [structure] of that organization or group exists." The article applies to all members and supporters of such groups even though they may not have taken up arms.

The PMOI is a banned opposition group based in Iraq which advocates the overthrow of the Iranian government. The PMOI has previously engaged in armed action against the Iranian government.

The Iranian authorities resort extensively to the imposition of the death penalty, with over 600 executions reported in the country from official and unofficial sources in 2011. So far this year, the Iranian authorities have acknowledged the execution of at least 85 people, 19 of them put to death in public. Amnesty International has received credible reports of 41 other executions which were not officially acknowledged, mostly of people convicted of drugs offences. Among others in Iran feared to be facing imminent execution are Habibollah Golparipour, Zaniar Moradi, Loghman Moradi (all members of Iran's Kurdish minority) Abd al-Rahman Heidari, Taha Heidari, Jamshid Heidari, Mansour Heidari, and Amir Muawi (or Mo’avi), Aref Hamidian (all members of Iran's Ahwazi Arab minority), Abdolreza Ghanbari and Saeed Malekpour. For further information regarding the use of the death penalty in Iran in 2011, see Amnesty International: Death Sentences and Executions in 2011, (MDE ACT 50/001/2012), 27 March 2012, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT50/001/2012/en.

The UN Human Rights Committee, which oversees implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), expressing concern at the large numbers of death sentences and executions, has called on the Iranian authorities to "consider abolishing the death penalty or at least revise the Penal Code to restrict the imposition of the death penalty to only the 'most serious crimes'" which it has interpreted to mean intentional crimes with lethal consequences. The UN Human Rights Committee also stated its concern about the use of solitary confinement in Iran.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and as a violation of the right to life, and is calling for all death sentences in Iran to be overturned or commuted.

Name: Hamid Ghassemi-Shall (m)

Issue(s): Risk of imminent execution, Legal concern, Torture

---------------------------------

** POSTAGE RATES **

Within the United States:

$0.32 - Postcards

$0.45 - Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)

To Canada:

$0.85 - Postcards

$0.85 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)

To Mexico:

$0.85 - Postcards

$0.85 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)

To all other destination countries:

$1.05 - Postcards

$1.05 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)

Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.

This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.

Urgent Action Network

Amnesty International USA

600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl

Washington DC 20003

Email: uan@aiusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/uan

Phone: 202.509.8193

Fax: 202.675.8566

----------------------------------

END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Iran’s War on Women: Executions, Floggings, and the Politics of Fear

The Iranian regime is increasingly using death sentences, corporal punishment, and judicial persecution against women—not only to silence dissent but also to intimidate a society demanding change. The Iranian regime has long viewed women as central to the country’s struggle for freedom—and therefore as central targets of repression. The nationwide uprising of 2022 fundamentally altered the political landscape, demonstrating that Iranian women were no longer merely participants in protest movements but among their principal organizers and symbols. Since then, the authorities have steadily intensified their campaign against women, expanding the use of executions, imprisonment, corporal punishment, and judicial intimidation.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog