Pressure on Ali Younesi to make televised confessions
Aida Younesi, the sister of Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student at Sharif University of Technology, has reported pressure on her brother to make a televised confession. Mr. Younesi was arrested on April 12 of this year along with Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student at Sharif University of Technology, and transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence's detention center known as Ward 209 of Evin Prison.
According to HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student at Sharif University of Technology, was pressured by intelligence ministry agents to make a televised confession.
Aida Younesi, Ali Younesi's sister, posted a video of Maziar Ebrahimi, who was previously forced to make a confession on television under torture and now lives outside Iran, and wrote about her brother's situation: "Watch Mr. Ebrahimi's words. They told my brother Ali Younesi the same thing on Wednesday: accept the charges with a confession on television or we will execute you with life imprisonment. After five months of detention, torture, solitary confinement, and public interrogation, they have been insisting on a television interview for three weeks with threats and pressure."
Yesterday, after the release of Navid Afkari's film "Forced Confessions" on the 8:30 PM news segment of Iranian state television, the issue of confessions under torture in Iran was raised again in cyberspace.
Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi have been denied access to a lawyer since their arrest.
Earlier in June of this year, HRANA reported that Mr. Younesi had contracted the coronavirus and was transferred to multiple cells in the Ministry of Intelligence's detention center, known as Ward 209 of Evin Prison.
In mid-June, a group of Iranian graduates, students, and professors inside and outside Iran wrote a letter to the head of the National Foundation for Elites and senior Iranian officials, calling for the immediate release and investigation of the situation of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi. The signatories expressed concern that the students had been in detention for about 40 days “for unclear reasons” and “in the context of the coronavirus outbreak,” and wrote that the continued lack of news, lack of visits to their families, and limited phone calls had increased concerns about their health and the possibility that the situation of the two students would not be addressed fairly.
Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student at Sharif University of Technology, were arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents on April 12 of this year and transferred to the agency's detention center, known as Ward 209 of Evin Prison. It is said that the arrest of these students was carried out by plainclothes officers without a judicial warrant and accompanied by beatings.
Another detained student, Amirhossein Moradi, is still in detention.
On May 6 of this year, Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, accused these students of collaborating with the People's Mojahedin (MEK).
A short time later, Aida Younesi, Ali Younesi's sister, denied these accusations by posting a video on social media, citing her parents' prison history in the 1960s as the reason for the accusations.
Regarding these students, it is worth mentioning that Amir Hossein Moradi is the silver medalist of the National Astronomy Olympiad of 2017 and Ali Younesi is the silver medalist of the National Astronomy Olympiad of 2016 and the gold medalist of the Astronomy Olympiad of 2016. Ali Younesi also brought honor to Iran by winning the gold medal at the 12th World Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad held in China.
Source: HRANA
