Mohammad Thalath, Gonabadi Dervish Accused of Murder, Sentenced to Death

The judge in the case regarding the killing of three police officers in Iran has issued a death sentence for Mohammad Thalath, a Gonabadi dervish and the accused in this case. The Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, published this news on Tuesday, March 19, stating that according to the law, the accused and his lawyer have 20 days to appeal the verdict. Mohammad Thalath is accused of running over police officers with a bus and killing three of them during clashes between dervishes and security forces on Pasdaran Street in Tehran. According to the court, the plaintiffs and the heirs of the deceased had requested retribution against Thalath. Hossein Rahimi, the commander of Tehran's police, had previously announced that this Gonabadi dervish would be executed before the end of the Iranian year 1396. The death sentence for this Gonabadi dervish was issued while he had denied the charges of 'premeditated murder' and 'disruption of public order through riot and assault' in his third and final court session on Sunday. In a video that circulated on social media during the night of the clashes between dervishes and police and Basij forces, a white bus zigzags towards the police forces and moves among them. Thalath stated in one of his court sessions that 'I have 17 broken places on my head. They {the officers} first hit me several times, which made me angry.' In his final defense, he also mentioned that he feared the officers would get back on the bus and 'assault' him. This Gonabadi dervish reported his 'visual impairment' and stated that 'I can't even recognize two meters,' denying any intent to move towards the police forces. He expressed his sorrow over the death of three police officers due to the collision with the bus he was driving, saying, 'I love execution. I am not saying this so that they do not execute me; I love execution. I drove the car and wanted to pass the incident. I did not run over them intentionally; my conscience is clear.' During the clashes on February 19 on Pasdaran Street, near the home of Nour Ali Tabandeh, the leader of the Gonabadi dervishes, three police officers and one Basij member were killed, and over 300 protesting dervishes were arrested. Although there is still no news about the fate and whereabouts of some of the detainees, the family of Mohammad Raji, a detained Gonabadi dervish, has confirmed his death in police custody. Following these widespread arrests, judicial officials emphasized the need for 'swift and out-of-turn' punishment for the Gonabadi dervishes. Meanwhile, while Nour Ali Tabandeh, the leader of the Gonabadi dervishes, has implicitly confirmed his house arrest in a video, pressures on the Gonabadi dervishes continue. Mr. Tabandeh has issued several statements that are said to have been 'under pressure,' disavowing the website 'Majzoban Noor,' which published news about the dervishes. Following his latest statement, the Majzoban Noor website announced that it would cease its activities and block all its social media accounts. Although the leader of the dervishes had expressed hope to see his followers with the arrival of the new solar year, in his latest statement, he called for the cessation of all dervish ceremonies across the country. In another report, several sources close to the dervishes, including the Twitter account 'Library of Sufism and Mysticism,' reported the closure of the office of 'Haqiqat Publishing,' which publishes dervish books. According to these reports, the office of this publisher of mystical and philosophical books on Gandhi Street in Tehran was 'sealed without prior notice by judicial authorities and security agents on the morning of Sunday, March 18.' Farhad Noori, an active dervish on Twitter, also wrote that 'in the first week of March 1396, a group without a warrant moved all the handwritten copies of mystical books from Haqiqat Publishing to an unknown location overnight.' Pressures on Gonabadi dervishes in Iran began in the 1980s in the city of Qom and spread to other cities in Iran.