{"id":665,"date":"2014-11-26T16:06:48","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T16:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=665"},"modified":"2014-11-26T16:06:48","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T16:06:48","slug":"document-iran-death-sentence-for-insulting-the-prophet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"Document – Iran: Death sentence for “insulting the prophet”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Soheil Arabi<\/p><\/div>\n

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL- An Iranian man has been sentenced to death for \u201cinsulting the Prophet of Islam\u201d. Soheil Arabi has now had his sentence upheld by Iran\u2019s Supreme Court. He was sentenced for posts deemed offensive to the Prophet he had made on Facebook.<\/p>\n

UA: 298\/14 Index: MDE 13\/064\/2014 Iran Date: 26 November 2014
\nURGENT ACTION
\nDEATH SENTENCE FOR \u2018INSULTING THE PROPHET\u2019
\nAn Iranian man has been sentenced to death for \u201cinsulting the Prophet of Islam\u201d. Soheil Arabi has now had his sentence upheld by Iran\u2019s Supreme Court. He was sentenced for posts deemed offensive to the Prophet he had made on Facebook.
\nPhotogrpaher Soheil Arabi, 30, was sentenced to death on 30 August 2014 for \u201cinsulting the Prophet of Islam\u201d (Sabbo al-Nabbi) by a five-judge panel of Branch 76 of the Criminal Court of Tehran: three of the judges ruled in favour of the death penalty. The charge stems from postings Soheil Arabi made on eight Facebook accounts, which the authorities said belong to Soheil Arabi. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence on 24 November. In a separate case stemming from the same Facebook posts, Soheil Arabi was sentenced to three years\u2019 imprisonment for \u201cspreading propaganda against the system\u201d and \u201cinsulting the leader\u201d, by a Tehran Revolutionary Court on 4 September.
\nSoheil Arabi was arrested in November 2013 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in his home in Tehran, and spent two months in solitary confinement in section 2A of Evin Prison, which is under the control of the IRGC. During interrogation, he was pressured into making a \u201cconfession\u201d. He was later transferred to Section 350 of the Prison, which is under the control of the Judiciary.
\nPlease write immediately in Persian, English, Spanish or your own language:
\nCalling on the Iranian authorities not to execute Soheil Arabi, and to immediately establish an official moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty;
\nUrging them to release Soheil Arabi if he is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and to uphold their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to respect the right to freedom of expression;
\nReminding them that under international human rights law, the death penalty may only be used for “the most serious crimes”, which international bodies have interpreted as being limited to crimes involving intentional killing.<\/p>\n

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 7 JANUARY 2015 TO:
\n\ufffd
\nLeader of the Islamic Republic
\nAyatollah Sayed \u2018Ali Khamenei
\nThe Office of the Supreme Leader
\nIslamic Republic Street \u2013 End of Shahid
\nKeshvarDoust Street,
\nTehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
\nTwitter: @khamenei_ir
\nEmail: info_leader@leader.ir
\nSalutation: Your Excellency<\/p>\n

Head of the Judiciary
\nAyatollah SadeghLarijani
\nc\/o Public Relations Office
\nNumber 4, 2 Azizi Street intersection
\nTehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
\n(Subject line: FAO
\nAyatollah Sadegh Larijani)
\nSalutation: Your Excellency<\/p>\n

And copies to:
\nPresident of the Islamic Republic of Iran
\nHassan Rouhani
\nThe Presidency
\nPasteur Street, Pasteur Square
\nTehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
\nEmail: media@rouhani.ir
\nTwitter: @HassanRouhani (English) and
\n@Rouhani_ir (Persian)\ufffd
\n\ufffd
\nAlso send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
\nName Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation<\/p>\n

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
\n\ufffd
\nURGENT ACTION
\nDEATH SENTENCE FOR \u2018INSULTING THE PROPHET\u2019
\nADditional Information
\nSoheil Arabai\u2019s case is the second case known to Amnesty International where someone was sentenced to death for \u201cinsulting the Prophet\u201d. The other case is of Rouhollah Tavana; the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence for \u201cinsulting the Prophet of Islam\u201d in February 2014. He had been sentenced to death on 3 August 2013 by Branch Five of the Criminal Court in Khorasan in relation to a video clip in which he allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad. The Court also sentenced him to imprisonment and flogging on charges of \u201calcohol consumption\u201d, \u201cmaking alcoholic beverages\u201d and \u201cillicit sexual relations\u201d. A Revolutionary Court in Khorasan sentenced him to a further three years’ imprisonment after convicting him of \u201cinsulting the founder of the Revolution\u201d and \u201cinsulting the Supreme Leader\u201d. See \u201cFacing Death for \u2018Insulting the Prophet\u2019\u201d (http:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/library\/info\/MDE13\/012\/2014\/en).<\/p>\n

Article 6(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides that the death penalty may be \u201cimposed only for the most serious crimes\u201d. In November 2011, the UN Human Rights Committee, which oversees implementation of the ICCPR, expressed concern about the number of death sentences imposed and carried out in Iran. The Committee said the Iranian authorities \u201cshould consider abolishing the death penalty or at least revise the Penal Code to restrict the imposition of the death penalty to only the \u2018most serious crimes\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a state party to the ICCPR, Iran is obliged to respect, protect and fulfil the rights contained in the treaty. However, the revised Islamic Penal Code, signed into law in May 2013, has maintained articles that unduly impose restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Article 262 of the Revised Penal Code states that \u201canyone who curses the Prophet of Islam or other Prophets or accuses them of adultery is Sabbo al-Nabi and will be sentenced to death\u201d. According to Article 263 of the Penal Code, \u201can accused who claims that their statements were made under duress, as a result of negligence, or in a state of intoxication\u201d among other things, would not be sentenced to death. A punishment of flogging is prescribed in such cases.<\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights Committee in its General Comments No. 34 criticizes laws prohibiting blasphemy or lack of respect for religious systems, stating that \u201cit would be impermissible for any such laws to discriminate in favour of or against one or certain religions or belief systems, or their adherents over another, or religious believers over non-believers. Nor would it be permissible for such prohibitions to be used to prevent or punish criticism of religious leaders or commentary on religious doctrine and tenets of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally because it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Name: Soheil Arabi
\nGender m\/f: m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL- An Iranian man has been sentenced to death for \u201cinsulting the Prophet of Islam\u201d. Soheil Arabi has now had his sentence upheld by Iran\u2019s Supreme Court. He was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-soheil-arabi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}