No news of the present condition and whereabouts of Nemat Safavi, the young man sentenced to death, Committee of Human Rights Reporters wrote on Nov 13, 2009

The report goes on to state that despite follow ups by a lawyer in all three criminal courts of the city of Ardabil, authorities have denied Nemat Safavi’s incarceration  in the city’s prison.

Nemat Safavi was jailed in the juvenile ward of Ardabil prison after he was sentenced to execution 38 months ago, when he was 16-years-old.

Iranian Queer Organization had been told by reporters in-touch with a lawyer affiliated with this case, that Nemat Safavi was sent to Tehran 8 months ago to appear in front of the Supreme Court for the final decision on his case. The execution order was over turned in the supremecourt and he was sent back to Ardabil for examination of the case. 

In our communications with another lawyer who works on human rights issues in Iran, we were told that as recent as 2 months ago, lawyers are under pressure by the regime to refuse cases where they are not paid their legal fees, and where the case is based on humanitarian work. We were told that even political prisoners cannot have a lawyer these days. 

Much of IRQO’s recent follow ups–in collaboration with Hossein Alizadeh of IGLHRG–on the execution status of our clients in Iran have been hitting dead ends.  So far we have no news of the whereabouts of Hamzeh Chavooshi, Loghman Hamzehpoor, Nemat Safavi, Ghasem Beshkool, Mohsen Ghebra’ee, Hamid Taghi, Ebrahim Hamidi, Mehdi Pooran,  and Mohamad Reza’ee. These individuals have all been sentenced to death, and we cannot get any information on their present situation. All of them have been reported as being in jails in certain cities with execution orders. Four of these men have denied the charges against them, and their families are supporting them and they have hired a lawyer to defend them.

Currently, in Iran, the Committee of Reporters of Human Rights is having 7 of their members in jail, and 4 in hiding, and this group was a crucial source of information on status of those sentenced to jail or death with accurate accounts on the news.

IRQO will continue its efforts to save the lives on these young men whose only fault is being gay in Islamic Republic of Iran.