Iran Human Rights (IHR); December 1, 2018: A prisoner convicted of murdering a prominent cleric who had allegedly sexually abused him when he was a minor, was hanged this morning at Rasht Central Prison in northern Iran.
IHR had previously reported about his case and scheduled execution.
According to the IHR sources, Hossein Esmailpour was a student at a religious school.
He was convicted of murdering Fakhri Langaroudi with the complicity of two of his friends on September 15, 2014.
The clergyman, who had a prominent position at the religious school, had allegedly sexually abused Hossein over a period of several years since Hossein was 14 years old.
Hossein Esmailpour had previously told IHR, “One of the defendants who was charged with complicity to murder was released and the other one is sentenced to life imprisonment.”
Fakhri Langaroudi, the clergyman, was an advisor in 2013 elections for Mohsen Rezaei (former Commander in Chief of IRGC) campaign, and the consultant of the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council in Gilan province.
The whole judicial process leading to Hossein’s death sentence lasted four months, which is very short to deal with such a complicated case.
However, some believe that the influence of the clergyman’s family was the reason for an unfair trial.
Hossein’s father had previously told IHR, “we did not have a chance to prove us in the court, because the victim was a clergyman and he had an influential family. Everything was for them and the court did not listen to us… Finally, the judge issued the death sentence in three or four months and then the Supreme Court upheld the verdict.”
Source: Iran Human Rights, December 1, 2018
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