European Union Condemns the Execution of Mohammad Salas

One day after the U.S. State Department condemned the execution of Mohammad Salas, the European Union also condemned this execution, stating that his trial raised "serious questions" about the Islamic Republic's respect for "fundamental rights and due process." In a statement published on Tuesday, June 18, the EU emphasized that Mohammad Salas was "tortured" and forced to confess without access to a lawyer, and was sentenced to death in a "rushed judicial process." The EU noted that the Iranian Supreme Court rejected Salas's request for retrial, indicating that "key evidence that could have proven his innocence appears to have been dismissed." The statement reiterated that "the European Union opposes the death penalty under any circumstances and calls for a global ban on it." "The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment that cannot serve as a deterrent and reflects an unacceptable denial of human dignity and perfection." Previously, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Salas's death sentence as "ruthless" and "unjust," urging Washington's allies worldwide to condemn the Iranian government's actions. In response, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman labeled these remarks as "interventionist." Bahram Qasemi claimed that Mohammad Salas "confessed to the charges after having a lawyer and going through legal and judicial processes in the courts of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and was thus found guilty and sentenced to retribution." Qasemi emphasized that "the ruling had no connection to his personal beliefs." Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters of the Judiciary, also reacted to these statements, saying that "perhaps there is no court in all of America that is as precise as this one." The Tehran Prosecutor's Office announced on the morning of Monday, June 17, that the death sentence for 51-year-old Mohammad Salas had been carried out. He was accused of running over three police officers with a bus during clashes on Pasdaran Street. During the trial of this Gonabadi dervish, domestic news agencies reported that Salas denied the intentionality of killing the police officers. However, his lawyer Zeynab Taheri and his children stated that Salas was "arrested three hours before the incident and was not the bus driver." Additionally, in an audio file released from Mohammad Salas, he claims he was not the driver of the bus and confessed to this due to "several hours of torture" at the police station. Salas's son also stated in a video that his father was "made up before the trial due to multiple tortures to hide these abuses." Nevertheless, Gholamhossein Esmaili, head of the Tehran judiciary, stated on Tuesday that Salas "confessed and admitted during the prosecutor's office and court and in the process of reconstructing the incident," and these statements were "filmed and documented." He also mentioned: "As soon as the prosecutor's office was informed, the investigator visited the hospital and interrogated the accused, who explicitly confessed and admitted." A protest gathering of Gonabadi dervishes on February 19 last year around the house of Nourali Tabandeh, the leader of this order, turned violent due to the intervention of security forces and motorcyclists in plain clothes. According to reports, 500 dervishes were arrested in these clashes, 360 of whom are imprisoned. Meanwhile, the website "Majzooban Noor" reported that 10 imprisoned women dervishes in Qarchak prison have been on hunger strike since Friday, June 14, in protest against "beatings" and "organized violence" by the prison guards. Amnesty International had previously reported that women dervishes in Qarchak prison "are subjected to mockery and verbal abuse, including sexual insults, and do not have access to adequate medical services." Parvaneh Salahshouri, head of the Women’s Fraction in Parliament, announced that members of this fraction have requested a visit to this prison in a letter to the head of the judiciary. The head of the Tehran judiciary also responded to this request, stating that such a visit "requires the approval of relevant organizations such as the prison organization and the judiciary."