In Iran: A Prisoner’s Execution Stopped on Public Demand

According to a close source, last night a video of Bahman Varmezyar’s mother was posted on the social media indicating that his execution was stopped. The prisoner’s mother thanked Iran’s supreme leader, and the head of the Judiciary in the video and some Iranian media also reported the direct order of the supreme leader to stop the execution. However, it is not clear whether the sentence was stopped by the Supreme Leader’s pardon or the case will be up for a retrial.
Iran Human Rights (IHR) has no information regarding the condition of the other defendant of the case, i.e., Mehdi Cheraghi, as yet.
The two prisoners, sentenced to death on the charge of Moharebeh through armed robbery, were transferred to the solitary confinement in preparation for execution on Friday, April 13.
Bahman Varmezyar and Mehdi Cheraghi were scheduled to be executed at Hamedan Central Prison today, i.e., Tuesday, April 17 at 6:30.
The stay of Bahman Varmezyar’s execution after the video of his mother that was posted on the social media which was followed by the reaction of some celebrities and the public proves the power of the social media to put an end to the death penalty.
IHR will provide you with an update as soon as there is any reliable information regarding this case.
Read more about this case
This report was updated at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, April 17:
In his interview with ISNA, Kamran Hamzeh talked about how the execution was stopped, “Considering the fact that two people were involved in the robbery, the execution of Bahman Varmezyar and the other defendant is halted for now due to a judicial matter. 
He stated that the only reason why the execution was halted was a judicial matter and he refuted any other claims that are made on the social media and emphasized that, “It’s not true that the execution of Bahman Varmezyar was stopped on the order of any high-ranking officials today.”