Exclusive; A Lawyer: The Death of Javad Rouhi is a 'Deliberate and Planned State Murder'

A lawyer and a human rights activist emphasized in an interview with Voice of America on Thursday, September 9, that the death of Javad Rouhi in the Islamic Republic's prison is a state murder that was carried out with prior planning, and the regime's attempt to refer the cause of death to the forensic organization is never trustworthy. Hossein Ahmadi-Niaz, a lawyer residing in the Netherlands, stated on the Voice of America news program: 'Javad Rouhi was innocent and never deserved a death sentence. After the death sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court, he should have been immediately released from prison, but the continued torture and denial of medical care to this young protester indicate a prior plan for his death, ultimately leading to his deliberate murder.' This international lawyer added: 'Execution is a judicial murder, but preventing treatment while torturing and preventing freedom is an extrajudicial killing. This model of killings has systematically occurred in the Islamic Republic over the past 44 years, and without any cost to the perpetrators and instigators of these murders, it continues.' Roya Boroumand, the executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, also commented on Javad Rouhi's death in the Nowshahr prison, stating: 'International institutions and global organizations, due to their lack of access to prisons and files inside Iran, ultimately resort to verbal condemnation or meetings with relevant officials in the Islamic Republic or at most sanctioning a few of the regime's agents, and since these actions have no practical cost for the Islamic Republic, they will never stop.' She added that the physical and mental condition of this young protester was such that he should never have remained in prison: 'The officials of the Islamic Republic place no value on human life, especially that of their opposing prisoners, and only think about preserving the regime and intimidating their opponents. Therefore, as long as they are not obliged to be accountable, they will continue the massacre and killing of opponents.' On Thursday, September 9, the news of Javad Rouhi's death in the Nowshahr prison sparked a wave of anger and disgust among Iranians, reflected in social media, where it was stated that 'he was killed in the Nowshahr prison contrary to the claims of the Islamic Republic officials.' The Mizan news agency, affiliated with the judiciary of the Islamic Republic, claimed that Javad Rouhi was transferred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Nowshahr early Thursday 'due to seizures and subsequently died.' Javad Rouhi had been in temporary detention in Nowshahr prison since 'September 21, 2022,' in connection with the protests in the second half of 2022 in Mazandaran. He was sentenced to death three times, but this sentence was later overturned by the Supreme Court. However, in mid-August, two months after the Supreme Court's ruling, his lawyer stated that this case was 'stuck in a strange administrative loop.'