Ali Nourizad's mother: My son's sentence is political and intended to pressure my wife
Fatemeh Maleki, the mother of Ali Nourizad, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, announced in an interview with the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that an appeal trial for her son will be held on Wednesday, May 10, and said that the sentence issued to her son is political and aimed at pressuring Mohammad Nourizad.
Ms. Maleki told the campaign that her son and others who took to the streets to express sympathy for the survivors of the Ukrainian plane crash by an IRGC missile should be applauded, not imprisoned.
Ali Nourizad is the son of Mohammad Nourizad (a political activist and one of the signatories of the statement calling for the resignation of the Leader of the Islamic Republic), who was arrested on January 12, 2019, during public protests against the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by an IRGC missile.
Fatemeh Maleki, Ali Nourizad's mother, said in an interview with the campaign: "On January 12, when he went to sympathize with the survivors of the plane crash, Ali was arrested by the IRGC and interrogated in a camp. A day after his arrest, he was transferred to Evin Prison and released 20 days later on bail of 850 million Tomans. However, on April 9, in an absentia trial, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges of gathering and colluding against the security of the country. We consider this verdict to be more of a political verdict than a legal verdict, and it is aimed at pressuring Mohammad Nourizad, and we do not accept it in any way."
On Wednesday morning, a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 people crashed minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini Airport near Tehran after being hit by a missile from the Revolutionary Guards, killing all on board. Officials in the Islamic Republic blamed a technical malfunction for the crash, and three days after the disaster, the General Staff of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces admitted in an official statement that the Revolutionary Guards’ defenses had mistakenly targeted the plane. They blamed “human error” for the horrific disaster.
On Wednesday, May 1, Ali Nourizad’s appeal trial was held in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. His mother told the campaign: “Since the verdict was issued in absentia, the lawyer objected, and today the appeal trial was held, with Ali and his lawyer present in court and presenting their defenses. But they will probably issue the same verdict again because our judges are subordinate to security agents and take orders from above, and this verdict was issued from above because my son basically did nothing. He and the young people who wanted to sympathize with the families of those who crashed in the plane should be encouraged, not imprisoned. This verdict was more to put pressure on Mr. Nourizad, and we do not accept either the charges or the verdict.”
Regarding the accusations against Ali Nourizad, Ms. Maleki told the campaign: “They have accused him of gathering and colluding with the intention of disrupting national security. Because he said that he and his friends had agreed to go to protest and show sympathy. They have taken the same phrase as gathering and colluding. What does gathering and colluding mean? Did they agree to burn down a bank? Plant a bomb? They only went out of sympathy and did not commit any crime against the security of the country.”
Mohammad Nourizad, the father of Ali Nourizad, who is imprisoned in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad, stated in an audio file released by his wife on Tuesday, May 29, that “I am ashamed of my family who are being persecuted because of me. In protest of the persecution of my family, I have decided to commit suicide, the news of which may come out in a few days.”
Mohammad Nourizad, who has been in detention since July 9, has been sentenced by Branch 4 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court to 15 years in prison, 3 years of exile to Izeh, and a 3-year ban on leaving the country.
On June 11, 2019, a letter was published by 14 political and civil activists living in Mashhad and Tehran, calling on the Leader of the Islamic Republic to resign and change the constitution. Part of the letter stated: “It is time for the people, activists, and compassionate thinkers to put aside their expedient tendencies that have led to the destruction of the country’s culture, civilization, and wealth, and to openly step into the arena and demand a fundamental change to the constitution and the resignation of the Leader, who is unjustly increasing his powers every day, and to be the vanguard of this national movement.”
The signatories of this letter are Mohammad Nourizad, Mohammad Maleki, Gohar Eshghi (mother of Sattar Beheshti), Abbas Vahedian Shahroudi, Kamal Jafari Yazdi, Mohammad Mahdavifar, Huriyeh Farajzadeh (sister of Shahram Farajzadeh, one of those killed in the 2009 protests), Javad Lal Mohammadi, Reza Mehregan, Mohammad Reza Bayat, Mohammad Hossein Sepehri, Hashem Khastar, Mohammad Karim Beigi, and Zaratasht Ahmadi Ragheb.
Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign
