Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 9, 2022: Sharif University students, Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi have been held in pre-trial detention in Ward 209 of Evin Prison for two years. Iran Human Rights demands their immediate release and calls on the international community to not stay silent on their unlawful lengthy detention.
Iran Human Rights Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Holding Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi in continuous detention for more than two years is illegal even according the Islamic Republic’s own laws. The blatantly gross violation of the students’ rights which are evident in the manner they were arrested, tortured, held in prolonged solitary confinement and forced confessions, must stop immediately.”
Despite two years passing since their arrest, Sharif University students, Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi have been held in pre-trial detention in the Ministry of Intelligence’s Ward 209 in Evin Prison.
Speaking to Iran Human Rights, one of Ali Younesi’s relatives said: “They are kept in closed cells with restrictions placed on their yard time and telephone access. They’re only allowed yard time two or three times weekly for 20 minutes and one or two phone calls per week.”
“Ali is kept is a small cell with one other person, so there are two of them in a cell. Amirhossein is in a bigger cell with more prisoners. There are usually five or six other prisoners, but the number is sometimes higher and sometimes lower.”
In an interview with Emtedad, Ali Younesi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili stated that their continued detention was clearly against the law.
Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student at Sharif University of Technology, and Amir Hossein Moradi, a physics student at the university, were arrested without a legal summons on 10 April 2020 and were held in solitary confinement for two months before being transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s (MOIS) Ward 209 in Evin Prison.
While at high school, Ali Younesi won silver and gold at the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In his senior year of high school, he won the gold medal with the Iranian national team at the 2018 World Astronomy Olympiad in China. Amir Hossein Moradi also won silver at the 2017 Iranian Astronomy Olympiad.
It should be noted that the Iranian security services have a history making false allegations and forcing false confessions under duress. In one case, Maziar Ebrahimi, an Iranian citizen, was arrested on charges of involvement in the assassination of nuclear scientists in 2012 by the Ministry of Intelligence. He pleaded guilty to the allegations in a televised confession, but was acquitted and released in 2014 when his innocence was proven following a dispute between the Islamic Republic Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence. It is believed that many people have been victims of false allegations charges and never had the opportunity to prove their innocence.