Holding 'Qasameh' Against a Murder Suspect; Hossein Raeisi, Lawyer: 'It is Systematic Revenge'

Following the holding of a 'Qasameh' ceremony in court against a suspect for whom there is no evidence to prove the murder charge, Hossein Raeisi, a lawyer, described 'Qasameh' as a 'very backward' method and 'systematic revenge' in an interview with the Persian section of Voice of America. According to Raeisi, the existence of 'Qasameh' as one of the methods of proving premeditated murder in Islamic Penal Law not only increases the risk of execution but also leads society to rely on very backward traditional evidentiary methods instead of seeking scientific reasons for crime detection. Mehdi Razavi Fard, a lawyer representing a murder suspect, announced on Wednesday, June 1, via a series of tweets that more than 30 relatives of the victim's family, some of whom 'not only did not know the suspect but also the victim,' attended the court's Qasameh ceremony and swore against the suspect's innocence. This lawyer explained 'Qasameh' by stating: 'When there is no evidence of the suspect committing murder, the complainant is asked to bring 50 male relatives to swear that the suspect is the murderer.' According to Razavi Fard, most of the swearers in court stated that they had learned about the suspect's guilt based on the statements of the victim's lawyer. This lawyer noted that some of the swearers did not even know the victim's name. Hossein Raeisi, in an interview with the Persian section of Voice of America, said that since objections to 'Qasameh' are interpreted as opposition to Islamic laws, despite numerous criticisms, there has not yet been an organized protest by judges and lawyers against 'Qasameh.' The news of the Qasameh ceremony has faced a wave of astonishment and anger from social media users. One user criticized the swearers, stating that each of these individuals has a murderer within themselves. Another user conditioned the rationality of 'Qasameh' solely on the occurrence of murder in a public square in front of witnesses. One user also recalled an incident, stating that the reason for the swearers to swear against a suspect was to repay the complainant's assistance in another matter. The likelihood of a death sentence for this murder suspect due to 'Qasameh' comes at a time when human rights activists have repeatedly warned about the increasing number of executions in Iran and called for international community action to stop this punishment in Iran. The Iran Human Rights Organization reported on Thursday, June 1, that the execution of 142 individuals in the previous month in Iran was an 'unprecedented record' since 2015. Additionally, see: Unprecedented increase in executions in Iran; the Islamic Republic executed 142 people in one month. Your submission | Gathering of Iranians in Cyprus protesting the issuance and execution of death sentences in Iran. The mother of a political prisoner sentenced to death: Help me, my day and night are dark. The judiciary has taken some representatives of foreign countries to prison to see 'Islamic prison principles.' The Dadeban website reported the arrest of a new suspect in the 'Ekbatane Town' case. A letter from six Iranian lawyers to Guterres: The death penalty should be 'abolished or limited.'