Interview with a relative of the Afkari brothers: The entire case was based on forced confessions after severe torture

A source close to the Afkari brothers says that the death sentences and long prison sentences for the three brothers were based on forced confessions after severe torture and threats.

The source close to the Afkari family, who did not wish to be named for their own safety, told VOA that the handling of their charges in three separate cases at the Shiraz Revolutionary Court, Branch 1 of the First Criminal Court, and the Second Criminal Court of Fars Province was “unfair and without any respect for human rights principles.”

In recent days, reports of heavy sentences being issued for three brothers, Navid, Vahid, and Habib Afkari, have been circulating online:

• Navid Afkari – Sentence: Death penalty and six and a half years in prison

Navid Afkari Sangari, born in 1994, is a wrestler who has won several championships in Iranian wrestling. He was arrested on the sidelines of the August 2018 protests, which began in Isfahan and spread to other parts of the country in protest of the sharp decline in the value of the Iranian currency against the dollar. His case was heard in a separate court and he was sentenced to six years and six months in prison on charges such as inciting people to undermine the country's security, propaganda activities against the regime, insulting the leadership, and collusion with society. However, his maximum sentence is for the murder of a security officer during protests in Shiraz. He has been sentenced to death twice for murder and war crimes.

• Vahid Afkari – Sentence: 54 years in prison

Vahid Afkari, born in 1985, Navid's older brother, although not sentenced to death, has been sentenced to a total of more than 54 years in prison by two branches of the Fars Provincial Criminal Court and the Shiraz Revolutionary Court. In one of the cases, the court accused him of "participating in war" and sentenced him to 27 years in prison. He has also been sentenced to another 27 years for "accomplices in premeditated murder" along with his brother.

• Habib Afkari – Sentence: 27 years and three months in prison

Habib Afkari, Navid Afkari's younger brother, has also been sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was also sentenced to this term by two courts on similar charges as his brothers, as well as "two counts of intentional wounding with a sharp object (knife)," "disrupting national security," "propaganda activity against the regime," and "insulting the leadership."

Unfair treatment

The source close to the Afkari family told VOA that the three brothers did not receive a fair trial. Navid and Vahid Afkari had a lawyer assigned to them by the judiciary in court, who gave them some false information. Habib Afkari also did not have a lawyer during the trial. They also did not have access to the case file and the evidence against them. It was only after the verdict was issued that Navid and Vahid Afkari were able to review their case file for only two hours in a controlled location in prison.

The informed source told VOA that although most sentences were issued in the lower court and have the opportunity to be appealed, Navid Afkari's death sentence is final. After being issued in Branch 1 of the Fars Province Criminal Court on August 15, 2020, the Supreme Court of Iran rejected the request for a retrial, and the case is awaiting the opinion of the head of the Islamic Republic's Judiciary to be referred to the Sentence Execution Branch, and there is a possibility of sending the case for the execution of the sentence and the execution of Navid Afkari at any time.

Torture to get charged with murder

A man named Hassan Turkman was killed on the sidelines of the protests in the second week of August. Some news agencies close to security agencies said he was one of the security forces present at the Shiraz rallies. However, the Iranian Judiciary News Agency has introduced him as a simple employee.

Shortly thereafter, the security and judicial apparatus identified Navid Afkari, one of those arrested during the Shiraz protests, as the murderer of Hassan Turkman. They also arrested his other brothers.

Bahieh Namjoo, Navid Afkari's mother, previously said in videos that agents tortured her sons to make them testify against each other, and that Vahid attempted suicide twice under the same torture.

This informed source close to the Afkari family told VOA that the trial was essentially based on confessions made by the Afkari brothers during interrogation.

Navid and Vahid Afkari denied the confessions in court, stating that they were extracted under threat and torture. They explained that they were subjected to the most severe and brutal torture, including “psychological torture, threats to kill and arrest other family members, putting plastic on their heads, and pouring alcohol into their noses with a dropper.”

Previously, Navid Afkari had said in a letter that plastic had been put over his face and that he had been forced to confess to fabricated information to the point of suffocation and death.

In an audio recording, Navid Afkari said that his right hand was broken in several places. He also confirmed that Hassan Turkman did not know the deceased, “but under torture, I gave in to their demands for the sake of saving my family and for the sake of Vahid.”

Forced and violent confessions by Iranian security forces have been reported many times before. This method of obtaining confessions, which has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups, continues to be used by the Islamic Republic’s judiciary. Some of these forced confessions from detainees, such as those of Maziar Bahari, Maziar Ebrahimi, Sepideh Gholian, Ebrahim Bakhshi, Saeed Malekpour, and dozens of others, have been broadcast on official Iranian television channels.

Murder case: Contradictions in court documents

This source close to the Afkari family, in an interview with VOA, emphasized that the court documents regarding the murder and its attribution to Navid Afkari contain many contradictions, adding: "It is said that following these forced confessions, Navid stated that the murder weapon was a knife that was found in their house. While this claim was rejected by the forensic doctor, the judge in the case did not include the forensic doctor's opinion in the indictment."

He said: "Another document through which the judge attributed the murder to Navid Afkari is the report titled "Navid and Vahid's mobile antenna at the location of the victim's mission." However, based on the documents presented, the mobile antenna is shown to be two to three kilometers away from the murder site.

The Judiciary News Agency's Twitter account claimed this week that there was footage of the murder by Navid Afkari. But Hassan Younesi, who represents Navid Afkari, dismissed the claim as baseless, writing that there was no footage of the moment of the murder, "and the alleged footage is from an hour before the murder."

The source close to the Afkari brothers finally told VOA: "It is clear what happened in the court hearings. The torture has been confirmed, and although all the evidence proving the innocence of the three brothers has been collected, no investigation has been carried out, and the Afkari family no longer has any hope in the Iranian judicial system. However, they are asking the international community for help to prove the innocence of the three brothers."

Previously, Voice of America reported on the widespread protest of Iranian users on social media against the death sentences for Navid Afkari and the heavy sentences imposed on his brothers.

Human rights organizations say the Islamic Republic does not handle accusations fairly and that innocent people have sometimes been tried and even executed. For example, in the 1960s, the Islamic Republic executed thousands of people who had been sentenced to prison.

The United States says the Islamic Republic is spending its wealth, rather than the Iranian people, on supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing the Middle East. The United States has also repeatedly condemned the institutionalized financial corruption and looting of Iran's God-given assets by regime affiliates, calling them among the main causes of Iran's economic and financial problems.

Source: Voice of America