Mohammad Thalath Executed

The Tehran Prosecutor's Office announced on Monday morning, June 18, that the death sentence of Mohammad Thalath, a Gonabadi dervish, has been carried out. Mr. Thalath was accused of running over three police officers during a confrontation with dervishes, but his lawyer insisted he is innocent, and Amnesty International stated that his execution 'sacrifices justice.' Iranian news agencies report that the execution of Mohammad Thalath Babajani was carried out in prison early on Monday. In mid-April, he was sentenced to qisas (retribution) three times for 'running over three police officers with a bus' during a clash between Gonabadi dervishes and security forces on Pasdaran Street in Tehran. The conflict between law enforcement and the Gonabadi dervishes occurred on February 19 following a protest gathering of dervishes around the house of Nour Ali Tabandeh, the leader of this order. This gathering turned violent with the intervention of security forces and plainclothes agents. A video from the night of the clash shows a white bus zigzagging towards police forces. During the trial, domestic news agencies quoted Mr. Thalath as denying the intentional killing of the police officers. However, his lawyer, Zainab Taheri, and his son and daughter stated that Mr. Thalath was arrested three hours before the incident and was not the bus driver. In an audio file released from Mohammad Thalath, he claims he was not the driver of the bus and confessed to this due to 'several hours of torture' at the police station. On Sunday, Ms. Taheri tweeted to the Tehran prosecutor, stating, 'With years of legal experience, I guarantee he is innocent and I have undeniable evidence that he is innocent. What is the reason for this haste and injustice?' This lawyer added that the Iranian judiciary does not intend to hear her statements about Mohammad Thalath's 'innocence' and therefore seeks 'immediate help from all the people of Iran, the world, and international officials.' Amnesty International had also urged Iranian authorities to halt the execution process just hours before the execution of this Gonabadi dervish. According to Amnesty International, the information received by the organization indicates that pursuing the execution process 'will sacrifice justice.' Amnesty called on Iranian officials to stop the death sentence and demanded a retrial in this case in accordance with international fair trial standards and the abolition of the death penalty. Shadi Sadr, a lawyer and civil rights activist, also emphasized on her Facebook page on Sunday that Mohammad Thalath 'shortly after these confessions (about running over police forces) repeatedly stated that he repeated what the interrogators asked him out of fear of dying under torture.' According to Ms. Sadr, 'The rejection of the lawyers' request for retrial and the failure to hear the testimony of witnesses they introduced, who saw that the bus driver was a young man and not Mohammad Thalath, and witnesses who saw his arrest a few hours before the incident, will forever lead the process of 'truth-finding' regarding two fundamental issues, the presence or absence of Thalath at the crime scene and obtaining a confession under torture, to a deadlock.' Zainab Taheri, Mohammad Thalath's lawyer, stated that in the text of the retrial petition sent to the Supreme Court, it is mentioned that 'new witnesses' are willing to testify that they saw the bus driver was a 'young man.' The Gonabadi dervish community also asked the families of the victims of the Pasdaran incident to refrain from executing 'qisas' until legal evidence against Mr. Thalath is completed. The prosecutor's office has not yet responded to the statements regarding the confession under torture. Gholamreza Ansari, Deputy for Supervision and Inspection of the Supreme Court, had rejected Mr. Thalath's lawyer's statements regarding the acceptance of the retrial request on June 28.