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
Iranian Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, in north-western Iran, arrested Ayoub Karimi, a Kurdish Sunni prisoner, on 7 December 2009 and took him to its detention centre in the city.
The ministry interrogated him for eight months on the accusation of “enmity against God” (moharebeh).
The prisoner was then taken to Evin Prison in Tehran, where he was interrogated in wards 240 and 209 for six months. He was eventually transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on 13 April 2012.
Karimi 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, which accused them of killing a Sunni cleric called Abdul Rahim Tina.
The hearing of the case was held on charges of “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the regime”, “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 Karimi 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 Islamic Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced Karimi and his six co-defendants to the death penalty 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.
