Say NO to the death penalty in Belarus

Human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi is at risk of execution after a Revolutionary Court in Rasht, Gilan province, sentenced her to death in June 2024 solely in relation to her peaceful human rights activities, reports Amnesty International. She supported women’s and workers’ rights as well as the abolition of the death penalty, and until 2011 was a member in a workers’ committee in Iran, where independent trade unions are banned. Her trial was grossly unfair, and her allegations of torture and other ill-treatment were never investigated.

On 5 December 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents arbitrarily arrested Sharifeh Mohammadi and transferred her to a detention centre in Rasht, where, according to an informed source, she was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including repeated kicks to her legs. A few days later, she was transferred to solitary confinement in Lakan prison. On 28 December 2023, she was transferred to a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, about 500 km from Rasht. According to informed sources, there agents subjected her to torture and ill-treatment to compel her forced “confessions”, including by repeatedly hitting her in the face and head while she was blindfolded, resulting in visible injuries. In late January 2024, upon her transfer to Sanandaj prison, she filed a complaint about her torture, but no investigation was conducted. Four weeks later, she withdrew her complaint after prosecution authorities threatened her with prolonged detention in Sanandaj prison, where she had been held incommunicado in solitary confinement. In late February 2024, she was transferred to Lakan prison.