Kurdish Sunni civilian
Detention date: 7 December 2009
Charged with: Spreading corruption on earth
Sentence: Death penalty
Current status: Imprisoned in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj
Davoud Abdollahi, a Kurdish Sunni prisoner, was detained on 7 December 2009 and transferred to the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh. He was interrogated there for eight months on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh).
Abdollahi was then transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran, where he was interrogated in wards 240 and 209 for six months. The prisoner was eventually transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on 13 April 2012.
Abdollahi and several of his co-defendants were charged with “spreading corruption on earth” (fasad fil-arz), based on claims by the office of intelligence ministry in Orumiyeh that accused them of killing a Sunni cleric named Abdul Rahim Tina.
The hearing of the case was held on charges of “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the state”, “membership in Salafi groups”, and “spreading corruption on earth” in March 2016 in Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Moghiseh.
The court sentenced Abdollahi and his six co-defendants to the death penalty, which was officially notified to them on 25 May.
The defendants appealed against the verdict and the case was referred to Branch 41 of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Razini.
The Supreme Court overruled the verdict in 2017 and referred the case to Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court for retrial.
Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced Abdollahi and his six co-defendants to the death penalty again in June 2018 on charges of “spreading corruption on earth”.
This time, the ruling was upheld by Branch 41 of the Supreme Court due to pressures of the intelligence ministry in Orumiyeh and it was officially notified to the lawyer of the defendants, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, on 3 February 2020.
