Iran: Father of political prisoner sentenced to death commits suicide

Moradi's father's suicide was "high psychological pressure, uncertainty and concern about the execution of his son."

People stage a protest against the execution by Iran of up to 20 Kurds (photo credit: REUTERS)
People stage a protest against the execution by Iran of up to 20 Kurds
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The father of a young Iranian man on death row who protested against the regime during the November 2019 demonstrations against regime corruption, committed suicide last week.
The father, Mohammed Moradi, killed himself at his home on September 28, the Iranian website Emtedad News reported.
His wife told Emtedad News that "before taking his life, he used to talk about his son until the last moment and wished that one day they would all sit at the same dining table again.”
According to the US government news outlet Radio Farda, a Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced Moradi’s 26-year-old son, Amir Hossein Moradi, to death after he was arrested by security services. He allegedly was brutally tortured in his solitary confinement cell in the infamous Evin Prison.
Emtedad News said the cause of Moradi's father's suicide was "high psychological pressure, uncertainty and concern about the execution of his son."
Amir Hossein Moradi's mother told Emtedad News that "hours after the suicide, the security forces were present at the house, as well as several reporters linked to the state-run Radio and TV network, who demanded an interview."
Radio Farda reported that the Iranian civil rights activist Mehdi Mahmoudian said the presence of security forces at Moradi's house was to obtain "forced confessions" from their family.
The news of Amir Hossein Moradi and his father comes after Iran’s regime executed the champion Greco-Roman wrestler Navid Afkari on September, 12. The 27-year-old Afkari, like the younger Moradi, participated in nationwide protests against regime corruption.
Afkari peacefully demonstrated during the wave of protests in 2018. The regime reportedly tortured Afkari to secure a forced confession.
Radio Farda reported that Moradi was sentenced to death on the charge of "cooperating in vandalism and arson with an intent to act against the Islamic Republic of Iran." The regime also imposed sixteen years in prison and 74 lashes on him for the charge of "cooperation in nearly harmful armed robbery at night."
The death sentenced imposed on Moradi, along with Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi, was announced last February, wrote Rado Farda. Tamjidi and Rajabi also participated in the mid-November 2019 protests.
Gholam-Hossein Esmaeili, the spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, announced the three protesters' death sentences in July.
In response to Esmaeili's statement, a hashtag campaign on Twitter was launched with the phrase "do not execute." Radio Farda said the hashtag  “was seen billions of times around the world” and “became the primary Twitter trend for at least three hours.”
UN human rights experts urged that Iran’s regime overturn the verdicts against the three men. 
Radio Farda wrote that “following widespread domestic and international protests, the lawyers of the three protesters announced on July 19 that the Supreme Court had agreed to reconsider their clients' cases and that ‘the execution of the defendants would be suspended until the final judicial decision on the issue."’
There have been no updates on the cases of the three political prisoners since July.