The U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus in a tweet on Thursday condemned Iran's death sentence for three young men for participating in the November 2019 anti-government protests against.
Iran Human Rights News Agency (HRANA) on Wednesday reported that the Supreme Court of Iran has upheld the death sentences of Amir-Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi.
The three friends who were arrested for participating in the protests were all sentenced to flogging, prison terms and death sentence by the Revolutionary Court for various charges brought against them. They have said that they were tortured and coerced into making false confessions aired by the state-run television.
Thousands of people who had taken part in the protests were arrested and hundreds were killed by security forces. According to a Reuters report the death toll of the protests could be as high as 1,500. Iranian authorities refute this numbers but have never made an official announcement of the death toll.
"The U.S. strongly condemns Iran's decision to sentence Amir-Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi to death," Ortagus wrote in her tweet and added: "These protesters were reportedly beaten, denied lawyers, and coerced into false confessions. Iran must respect human rights and stop these executions".
The Supreme Court has not officially announced its decision decision about death sentences – which often happens in controversial cases -- but informed sources including the lawyer of one of the defendants told HRANA that the Supreme Court has not agreed to lift the death sentence passed by the Revolutionary Court.
Following the revelation by HRANA and reactions from human rights organizations, activists and social media users, the Young Journalist Club which is an arm of the state-run broadcaster IRIB claimed that an informed source in the Judiciary has refuted the upholding of the sentence.
Some of the relatives and family members of the accused told Radio Farda that they are under great pressure from the security forces to keep quiet about the case.
