A Report on the Trial; How the Ekbatan Case Unfolded?

In this special report, we examine the Ekbatan case based on investigations and findings from Radio Farda from informed sources. The ruling and two 30-page opinions issued for the Ekbatan case, which have reached Radio Farda, and the statements of one of the lawyers in the virtual room of the Dadban legal group on the social network X (formerly Twitter), have been compiled. This case involves two conflicting rulings in Branch 13 of the Tehran Criminal Court. During the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests in 2022, a Basij member named 'Arman Ali-Vardi' was 'assaulted' on November 4 in the Ekbatan neighborhood of Tehran and died two days later, on November 6, in Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran. The Ekbatan neighborhood was one of the main areas of public protests following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini while in the custody of the morality police. Protests known as 'Women, Life, Freedom' ensued. Three days later, on November 11, images of Milad Armon, the first accused in the Ekbatan case, were published, showing him with a mask over his eyes. In front of the cameras of state media, and while Tehran police chief Hossein Rahimi insisted that he had no knife and did not commit the act, Rahimi placed a hand on his shoulder and, disregarding the accused's responses, introduced him as 'one of the main agents who was stabbing.' Two years later, on November 23, 2024, six defendants in the Ekbatan case were sentenced to death. The lawyers for the case stated that the head of the branch opposed this ruling and issued a minority opinion. But what do the 30-page ruling and two opinions that reached Radio Farda say? The forced confessions against themselves and against other defendants were the basis for the issuance of the death sentence by the advisors of the criminal court. Ehsan Sheikh al-Hekmaei and Saeed Sharafati are the two new advisors in this case who, based on reports from the Intelligence Protection Organization of the Air Force, the 10th Police Investigation Department of Tehran, the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC in Tehran, and the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC in Khuzestan, issued a death sentence on November 23, 2024, based on the forced confessions of the defendants against themselves and each other. Investigations by Radio Farda indicate that the defendants in this case were held in solitary and completely isolated cells in the detention centers of the IRGC, police investigations, and in one case in the detention center of the Intelligence Protection Organization of the Air Force, and were subjected to physical and psychological torture. These tortures led to confessions against themselves and others. The text of the death sentence issued by the advisors clearly states that the defendants rejected their forced confessions against themselves during court sessions, denied participation in the murder, and emphasized that they were coerced into confessing against themselves. For example, Alireza Kafayi stated in court that due to the severe beating he received at Shapur-Police Investigation, he was forced to say that he hit Arman Ali-Vardi with a stone. Navid Najaran also stated in court: 'The interrogator insisted that I kicked him, and I was forced to write that I kicked him.' Amir Mahdi Khoshghab also wrote about confessing out of 'fear,' and other defendants similarly rejected their confessions against themselves in court. Nevertheless, the two advisors, who were not present in any of the hearings of this case, wrote in their ruling that the defendants 'attempted to eliminate him - Arman Ali-Vardi - with the intention of confronting and overthrowing the Islamic regime, and the brutal assault and multiple blows to various parts of the body, including the head of the deceased, which led to the blow to the head of the deceased, can only indicate the intention to kill him.' They sentenced Milad Armon, Alireza Kafayi, Amir Mohammad Khoshghab, Navid Najaran, Hossein Naimati, and Alireza Barmarzpournak to 'death by hanging with the rejection of the difference in blood money for each of the defendants before the execution of the death sentence,' as well as paying blood money for non-effective injuries in the murder. Navid Najaran was also sentenced to one year of prison for public offense. Reza Shafaghar, one of the lawyers in the case, explained on November 24 in the virtual room of the Dadban legal group that 'the previous board - former advisors - led by Mr. Khalili - the head of the branch - realized that the murder could not be attributed to the defendants and that the blows inflicted were not even sufficient to cause an injury.' 'The agents or any other forces that you call superior forces, extrajudicial forces, forces that have more power than us, change the advisors of the court so that Mr. Khalili's opinion as the head of the court goes into the minority, and two advisors who are approved by them come to this case and issue this ruling. A ruling that they wanted to issue themselves. A ruling that is political. A ruling that only has political aspects and does not talk about rights, justice, and fairness.' Mohammad Mahdi Hosseini, Mahdi Imani, Amir Mahdi Rezaei, Erfan Rezaei, and Yasamin Dashtani, other defendants in this case, have been acquitted of their charges. The first to sixth defendants have also been acquitted of other charges on the grounds that the indictment issued to the Islamic Revolutionary Court corresponds with 'criminal titles of moharebeh and conspiracy against internal security' and is therefore subject to review, and individuals cannot be punished for committing an act with two criminal titles. The case of Milad Armon, Mohammad Mahdi Hosseini, Mahdi Imani, and Navid Najaran with the same charges is still pending in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court. But in this same case in the criminal court, Asghar Khalili, the head of Branch 13 of the Tehran Criminal Court, who has presided over seven sessions of this case, issued a separate ruling and opposed the death sentence, stating that Article 479 of the Islamic Penal Code should be considered in this case. Article 479 of the Islamic Penal Code states: 'Whenever someone is killed or injured due to the actions of a group, and the crime is attributed to some behaviors, and the perpetrator of each specific behavior is not known, all of them must pay the blood money for the soul or the blood money for the injuries equally.' Mr. Khalili, in his ruling, sentenced Milad Armon, Alireza Kafayi, and Amir Mohammad Khoshghab to pay 'the blood money for the deceased' and five years of prison, and acquitted the other defendants in the case. The head of Branch 13 of the Tehran Criminal Court stated in his ruling that the confessions of the defendants against themselves and others cannot be the basis for issuing a ruling; 'We cannot solely base the statements of the defendants in the police authority on the issuance of a ruling, and these statements must correspond with other evidence and indications present in the case and reflected in the file, and we cannot base the confessions of the defendants regarding other defendants on the issuance of a ruling, and a confession only holds validity for the confessor and has no validity regarding other individuals.' In the ruling issued by Mr. Khalili, it is stated that 'the forensic medicine at various stages declared the complete cause of death to be cerebral hemorrhage following a blow from a hard object to the head. According to the investigations conducted, it is established that the deceased was initially attacked in the parking lot of block A4, and at this stage, a large number of individuals assaulted the deceased, and it is even evident in the provided images that an individual struck the deceased with a large stone on the forehead, but despite this, there is insufficient evidence to establish which blows caused the death and cerebral hemorrhage, and this matter is questionable.' Reza Shafaghar, one of the lawyers in the Ekbatan case, stated in the virtual room of Dadban that none of the defendants in the case are accused of killing Arman Ali-Vardi, and they are ultimately accused of inflicting non-effective blows in the death. He called for the prosecution of the commander of Arman Ali-Vardi: 'If someone is to be prosecuted, it is the commander who deployed Mr. Arman Ali-Vardi without training and without special measures, sending completely unprepared forces for a complex intelligence task under the pretext of monitoring and identifying protesters into a crowd of angry people.' Investigations by Radio Farda indicate that despite repeated summons by the investigator of Branch 13 of the Tehran Criminal Court, none of the Basij and IRGC commanders responsible for suppressing the protests in Ekbatan have appeared in this branch. Two military commanders were summoned as informed witnesses to this branch. Arman Ali-Vardi, a 21-year-old cleric from the Ayatollah Mojtahedi seminary and a Basij member of the Imam Reza security unit of the Mohammad Rasulullah IRGC, lived in the Shahran neighborhood of Tehran, where images of his 'assault' in the Ekbatan neighborhood that led to his death were published. According to Reza Shafaghar, the lawyer in the Ekbatan case, based on testimonies from Basij members who were with Arman Ali-Vardi, the deceased was called to Ekbatan on November 4, 2022, from the seminary for suppression and was sent with four others to identify the leaders of the protesters. He quoted one of the Basij members in the case as saying that these five individuals, after returning to their commander, reported that they were facing more than 2500 protesters, but the commander insisted that they return to the protesters with the title, 'Go back so we can attack and suppress them, and you arrest the leaders.' This time, these five individuals, who had identifiable Basij faces, were recognized by the people, and more than 200 people pursued Arman Ali-Vardi. He was initially assaulted in the parking lot A4 of the Ekbatan neighborhood by a group of protesters and then, with the help of one of the defendants in the Ekbatan case, made his way to the beginning of Varzesh Street, in front of the Pas Club. 'In the parking lot A4, Mr. Arman Ali-Vardi was only beaten by the people and got up with the help of one of the defendants in this case to go to the military forces, and there he was caught by a group coming from the opposite direction with their faces covered, and one person struck him with a very large stone on the head. Forensic medicine specifically stated that the severity of the blows to the head was significant. Therefore, the court and the prosecutor's office did not investigate the defendants in the second part who were in Varzesh Street at all, and we have no defendants from that stage. Who do we have? All those who are present in the surveillance cameras in the parking lot A4.' How was the trial process? Reza Shafaghar, one of the lawyers in the Ekbatan case, stated in the virtual room of the Dadban legal group on the social network X that 'there is no balance of power on either side of this case.' According to him, although the lawyers were present at the investigation stage, the case proceeded under the instructions of the agents, and they did whatever the agents wanted with the case: 'The advisors who were completely familiar with the case and heard seven sessions of defenses were set aside, and these two advisors were brought in. This extrajudicial and illegal process and interference from powerful hands. From the approach of the police force to the words of the leader to going to the leader's house to the words of Ajamian and his blood vengeance regarding why nothing is being done in the Arman case, why they are not executing, all of these were pressures that took the case out of its true legal course.' Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in a public speech referred to Arman Ali-Vardi as 'dear Arman' and said: 'That young, devout, and Hezbollah cleric, dear Arman, who was martyred under torture in Tehran and whose body was left on the street, what sin did he commit? Who are those who commit these crimes, and where do they get their orders from? Of course, these are certainly not our children and youth; the perpetrators of these crimes must be identified, and anyone proven to have collaborated in these crimes will undoubtedly be punished.' Images of the meeting between the family of Arman Ali-Vardi and the leader of the Islamic Republic have also been repeatedly published in state media. During this time, Iranian media have repeatedly reported the renaming of highways, clubs, and metro stations in the name of Arman Ali-Vardi, and a virtual tomb has been created for him, and books and biographies have been written, with all government facilities employed to commemorate his name. Reza Shafaghar, one of the lawyers in the case, stated that all these events occurred during the trial process. 'We are not facing equal conditions. There is no equality established between my client and the opposing side. The opposing side has a special advantage. Isn't the principle of judicial review equality, fairness, and impartiality? There should be no difference between the blood of Mr. Arman Ali-Vardi and the blood of Milad Armon and the other kids. In this case, a fair trial is not taking place.' Lawyers for the Ekbatan case have announced in interviews with domestic media and also through posts on social networks that they will request a review in the Supreme Court. A case in which, on one side, Arzoo Foroughi and Ezzatollah Ali-Vardi, the mother and father of Arman Ali-Vardi, are present as plaintiffs, backed by the government that has named their son a 'martyr,' and on the other side, young defendants who, according to their lawyers and also based on the ruling of the head of the Tehran Criminal Branch, are not accused of 'murdering' Arman Ali-Vardi.