The “Committee for following up the condition of detainees” (FollowupIran) citing an informed source, has published a report on severe torture inflicted upon the detainees of last year’s protests in the city of Karaj, followed by the execution of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini. Prior to their execution, the two prisoners were told that they would be pardoned.
FollowupIran released a detailed report on X (formerly Twitter) about the torture and execution of detainees involved in nationwide protests in Iran, related to the case of the Rouhollah Ajamian, a member of the Basij who was killed while engaging in suppressing protesters on the Karaj highway.
According to this report, alongside the confirmation of sentences for eight individuals charged in the Rouhollah Ajamian case by the Supreme Court, FollowupIran has obtained new details about what the detainees in this case have experienced.
While various news and reports had been published in recent months about the torture of the defendants in this case, and the forced confessions extracted from them on social networks, many details regarding what transpired during the interrogations and the night of the execution of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini had not been revealed.
A source close to the defendants in this case told FollowupIran, “After the arrest of these individuals, they were subjected to torture to the point of death.” This informed source, speaking about the matter after months, said, “From the moment of their arrest and throughout their transportation and detention, the torture of the defendants in this case has been continuous.”
The source further states that various forms of torture were employed, including punching, kicking, the use of electric shockers, and beating for long periods. One of the methods frequently used was a torture technique known as “fried chicken” (Juje Kabab). In this method, the person is suspended from the ceiling with their hands and feet tied together with chains from behind. After hanging them from the ceiling, several torturers would beat them while using vulgar words to insult them.
The source, quoting one of the defendants, said, “After the torture, they transferred him to a multi-tenant cell because they thought he couldn’t survive on his own given his condition! After being transferred to that cell, one of the inmates passed out upon seeing his condition. His entire head and face were covered in blood, his body was so swollen from electric shocks that they couldn’t even remove his clothes. His whole body had severe injuries.”
The source, referring to other defendants in this case, said “Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini were subjected to more torture than others. For example, while others were kept in the ‘fried chicken’ position for 20 minutes, in the case of Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, it would reach up to 50 minutes because even in the midst of torture, he would not make any noise or cry out for them to bring him down.”
He said, “This situation lasted for more than thirty days, and during this time, they have been artificially executed several times. The prisoners have been told that they would take them and execute them, they took them to the courtyard, blindfolded them. They said they should kneel down, and after a few minutes, they dragged them by their hair or beard on the ground and threw them back into their cells.”
According to the informed source, the defendants were subjected to torture, harassment, and mistreatment even before their first court hearing and before being brought to the court. They were brought to the court without being informed about their trial.
The first court hearing of the defendants in the case of Rouhollah Ajamian was held on November 30, 2022, and in the photos and images available from the day of the trial, the defendants appear very tired and shocked.
The source reports, “That morning, they made all the defendants in this case stand in a line in the courtyard of the detention center on one leg. It was a cold day, and they were only wearing the same clothes we saw in the photos of the first court hearing. Thin and worn-out prison clothes. For two and a half hours, they sat in the freezing morning of the city of Karaj on one leg and were subjected to insults, beatings, and electric shocks with the slightest movement. Then, even the guards sat on their necks and smoked cigarettes, and if they couldn’t withstand standing on one leg, they were beaten again. After two and a half hours, their numb bodies were transferred to the court with beatings and kicks in a black van.”
After the trial, all the defendants are transferred to Karaj Central Prison, and after two weeks, their sentences were communicated to them in prison. According to this source, the behavior of the prison chief and other guards towards the defendants in this case was very violent and accompanied by repeated insults and threats. For example, they frequently told them, “You’re only worthy of sleeping in front of the toilets, you are not human, you are criminals, you are hypocrites.” (By using this word the Iranian regime refers to the members and supporters of the MEK.) They also frequently used vulgar insults against these prisoners.
The source says, “On the day they issued the sentences, they all were sentenced to 25 years in prison, and five were sentenced to death. They were extremely concerned and terrified that these sentences might be carried out, so they made an agreement among themselves that if these heavy sentences were to be executed, they would commit mass suicide. Mohammad-Mehdi Karami had confidently said, ‘I won’t let them execute me, I will kill myself first.'”
“After the issuance of the sentences, they sent a psychologist who forcibly prescribed sedatives for the prisoners and forced the prison authorities to make them take the drugs. Those who protested and refused to take the pills were faced with threats and verbal abuse and were forced to take them in the presence of officers.”
This source describes the day when news broke about the sentences being overturned for most defendants and the confirmation of the death sentences for Mohammad-Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini. According to the source, they were in touch with outside the prison while they were in the public prison. In early January, it was announced that the sentences had been overturned, except for Mohammad-Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, whose death sentences were confirmed. They were terrified and concerned.
According to the source, Mohammad-Mehdi Karami had decided to go on a hunger strike, and a prison officer tried to persuade him not to, saying, “If you go on a hunger strike, the charge of disrupting prison order will be added to your case, which has dire consequences.”
The source reports that on the morning of January 6, Abbasi (the prison chief) went to the ward for a “discussion about the prisoners’ issues” and later took Mohammad-Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini to his office. The source adds, “However, in the middle of the way, they separated them from the group and took them to specific individuals among the death row prisoners.”
According to the source, “Until around 9 pm, there was no news about the prisoners who had gone to talk to the prison chief about their problems. At the same time, others realized that the television was also cut off, and the phones were not working. Then they read out the names of several people through the loudspeaker and took them solitary confinement as well.”
The prisoners who were in solitary confinement that night described the situation as follows: “Around dawn, the sound of prayers was heard in the corridors, and there was a lot of movement. Some reported that they saw someone with a camera in the hallway and heard voices saying, ‘You have been forgiven. Pardoned.’ The prisoners saw through the crack in the cell that Mohammad-Mehdi and Seyed Mohammad were in. But the next morning, when the administrative staff came and took them back to the ward, they realized that the death sentences for Mohammad-Mehdi and Seyed Mohammad had been carried out.”
The brother of one of the prisoners in this case had previously told the media that his brother’s arrest was accompanied by severe beatings, to the extent that one of his ribs was broken, and later, during interrogations, five more of his ribs were also broken, and the lack of proper medical attention resulted in a punctured lung for him.
