Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, elite students, in "temporary detention" for a year; no trial has yet been held
One year after the temporary detention of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, two elite students at Sharif University, one of the lawyers in the case announced that their court hearing would not be held, saying that his clients were charged with "corruption on earth."
Ali Younesi's defense lawyer, Mostafa Nili, announced on his Twitter page that the court hearing of the two detained students, which was scheduled to be held on Sunday, April 12, at Branch 29 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, had been postponed. He stated that the reason for the court hearing not being held was the failure to send the two political prisoners from Ward 209 to the Revolutionary Court.
Reza Younesi, the brother of Ali Younesi, a student arrested in Iran, also posted a text on Twitter confirming the news, writing: "The agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, at the behest of the Ministry of Intelligence, played everyone, including the judge of the Judiciary."
Mustafa Nili also described the charges against the two detained students in an interview with Imtadat, a news website in Iran, as “corruption on earth.” Referring to the public interrogation session of the two imprisoned students in July of last year, he said that the lawyers for the case have been faced with strange and unusual issues from the beginning that “cannot be measured by any legal, moral, or religious standards.”
He further added that despite numerous follow-ups to date and during the one-year temporary detention of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, the lawyers in the case have not been able to talk to them in person or even by phone.
Referring to the detention of these two imprisoned students in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, the lawyer also said that detention in solitary confinement or security wards is considered a "violation of the rights of the accused" and in many cases this action can be considered "instances of torture."
Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student, winner of the silver medal in the 2016 Astronomy Olympiad and the gold medal in the 2017 Astronomy Olympiad, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student and winner of the silver medal in the 2017 National Astronomy Olympiad, were arrested by plainclothes forces on Friday, April 12, 2020, without a warrant and beaten at their residence, and this arrest has continued to this day.
The US State Department has repeatedly and on various occasions condemned the violent confrontations and widespread repression of protesters, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by the Islamic Republic.
The annual report on the status of human rights in various countries published by the US Department of State states in the section on the human rights situation in Iran in 2020 that the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not only committing human rights violations in Iran, but are also involved in human rights violations in Syria through military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese Hezbollah forces, as well as in Iraq through assistance to pro-Iranian militias, and in Yemen through support for the Houthi rebels.
