More than two years after agents of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry arrested and tortured university students Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi, their lawyer says that the continued “temporary detention” is “against the law” considering the charges brought against them.
Referring to the arrest of the two students on April 10, 2020, their lawyer Mostafa Nili said in an interview with the state-run Etemad website on Wednesday: “According to Article 242 of Iran’s Criminal Code of Procedure, the maximum period of temporary detention in crimes punishable by death is two years, and in other crimes, one year.”
Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi have been tried twice so far, and the Revolutionary Court has charged them with “corruption on earth,” which can be punishable by death under the Islamic Penal Code.
Mostafa Nili further said that he and the families of the students’ follow-up on the Revolutionary Court to convert and reduce the detention order has remained unanswered. The head of the Revolutionary Court has not yet agreed to meet them.
Mr. Nili referred to numerous violations of the law by the judicial authorities and their neglect of the basic rights of his clients and said that prison authorities have denied the two students of continuing their education despite the permission and order of the Deputy Judiciary.
Younesi and Moradi were arrested by state agents on April 10, 2020. Both are highly gifted students; In 2016, Younesi won a gold medal in the International Astronomy Olympiad and Moradi won a silver medal in Iran’s domestic astronomy Olympiad.
Last year, the release of a video of their forced confessions drew a backlash from activists and human rights groups.
The international network of Scholars at Risk (SAR) published an open letter addressed to Iran’s Minister of Science on March 31, demanding the immediate release of the two Sharif University of Technology honor students.
