Iran Human Rights (Apr 16, 2018): Two prisoners who were sentenced to death on the charge of armed robbery, are transferred to the solitary confinement. They are in imminent danger of execution.
According to a close source, on the morning of Friday April 13, two prisoners named Bahman Varmezyar and Mehdi Cheraghi were transferred to the solitary confinement in order to be executed. The prisoners were sentenced to death on the charge of Moharebeh through armed robbery.
Farhad Varmezyar, the brother of one of the prisoners whom his execution is scheduled for Tuesday, April 17, told IHR, “Bahman had never been arrested for anything before. He was an athlete. During the armed robbery, people captured one of the thieves and turned him into the police. My brother escaped with the jewels but he regretted his action and called the police to tell them that he did this and that he wanted to surrender. 18 days later he turned himself in and returned the jewels, and the plaintiff gave his consent after finding out that Bahman wasn’t a common thief. They never shot anybody at the time of the robbery; they just shot in the air.”
He concluded, “After the sentence was issued, we asked Naser Ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Jafar Sobhani, and Safi Golpayegani for a Fatwa that if a defendant repents and he has no criminal records, he shall not be executed and his sentence shall be reduced. However, the authorities ignored it. Today, they called us to visit my brother for the last time. They have also called Mehdi Cheraghi’s family.”
It should be noted that the robbery took place on March 31, 2015, and Bahman Varmezyar turned himself in on April 7. During the robbery, four people were arrested; two of them were sentenced to three years imprisonment but were released after one year in prison, and the two others were sentenced to death.