sentenced to death in the murders, saving them from the hangman’s noose.
But the families indicated they did not do so out of compassion for the convicted killers, but rather because they believe those two men are mere scapegoats and that the officials who ordered the beatings have been allowed to go free.
The families demanded that the “real culprits” be called to justice.
The Mehr news agency said the families of the three beating victims—Mohsen Ruh-ol-Amini, Mohammad Kamrani and Amir Javadifar—were agreed on the action. The three young men were arrested during one of the post-election protests last year and taken to Kahrizak.
When they died, their death certificates said the cause of death was meningitis. But when Ruh-ol-Amini’s father picked up the body, he found his son’s teeth broken off and his face smashed. The father is a prominent figure in the conservative faction and raised a stink. He gave credibility to the complaints and raised the issue to a national concern, which has not yet faded.
The families’ pardon means the two prison employees—who have not been identified by name or rank—will not be executed.
They were convicted in June along with nine others who received prison terms and lashes for their roles—not explained—in the deaths.
A statement from the families said “a small but powerful group” within the regime establishment had been trying to cover up this “horrendous crime” so the “real culprits” would escape “the talons of justice.”
It said the authorities had been “placing blame on interrogators and police” rather than focusing on “the main person in charge of ordering the transfer of the victims to Kahrizak.”
A Majlis investigative report released in January said the then-prosecutor of Tehran, Saeed Mortazavi, had ordered the men sent to Kahrizak even though political prisoners were not supposed to be sent there and even though Evin prison had plenty of room.
The statement from the families said, “We do not gain pleasure from revenge or spilling the blood of the puppets of those who have broken the law.”
