Info:
As the Head of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Judge Abdolghassem Salavati has been responsible for multiple human rights violations by presiding over unfair trials, suppressing protests, persecuting ethnic and religious minorities, making excessive use of the death penalty, and issuing heavy prison sentences for activists;
Salavati presides over Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, where he has prosecuted and delivered harsh sentences, including many death sentences, to scores of political prisoners, human rights activists, and peaceful demonstrators, earning him the moniker “the Judge of Death.”;
Branch 15 is a main venue for the prosecution and harsh sentencing of journalists and internet users. Salavati alone has sentenced more than 100 political prisoners, human right activists, media workers and others seeking to exercise freedom of assembly to lengthy prison terms as well as several death sentences. For example, following a 2015 demonstration by teachers and their supporters, Salavati sentenced the secretary general of the Teachers Association of Iran to six years in prison for “propaganda against the state” and “collusion against national security.”;
Judges on these Revolutionary Courts, including Salavati, have acted as both judge and prosecutor, deprived prisoners of access to lawyers, and intimidated defendants;
Following the 2009 post-election protests, Salavati assisted security forces in suppressing protests by presiding over “show trials,” condemning two monarchists to death;
Salavati has deprived defendants of access to legal representation and subjected them to brutal interrogations and extrajudicial ill-treatment in the absence of their lawyers. He has also sentenced a large number of activists and dissidents to long prison terms and death;
Salavati is responsible for executing prison sentences for Baha’i professors on the basis of their faith after they were charged with national security-related charges for their work at a virtual Baha’i university;
According to Salavati’s verdict seven members of the Gonabadi Dervishes are collectively serving 62 years in prison for their peaceful activities as members of the sect;
In January 2009 Salavati found four people guilty of colluding with the United States government against Iran for working on an HIV/AIDS prevention programme. Arash and Kamyar Alayi, brothers who were both doctors, got six- and three-year sentences, respectively, while Silva Haratounian and Mohammad Ehsani received three-year terms. The Alayi brothers’ “crime” seems to have been to participate in a seminar held by the non-government Aspen Institute in Washington. Salavati was unmoved by the defense argument that they were not working with the American government. No evidence was produced in court to support the prosecution case, and the judge simply based his decision on the indictment document submitted by Iran’s intelligence ministry. The indictment, posted on the internet by the International Campaign For Human Rights in Iran, amounts to little more than a confused story of alleged US interference in Iran, rather than specific factual evidence;
Salavati sentenced 20-year-old student Mohammad Amin Valian to death on a single piece of evidence – the defendant’s own confession that he threw three rocks during the unrest. The extreme nature of the sentence led to an outcry from international and domestic human rights groups. On appeal, the death penalty was commuted to a three-year prison term, a decision which lends weight to the argument that the original judge, Salavati, was swayed more by political than judicial interests;
On 1 June 2015, judge Salavati convicted the cartoonist Atena Farghadani to 12 years and nine months in prison. on the charges of “colluding against national security”, “spreading propaganda against the system” and “insulting members of the parliament” through her artwork. She had depicted Iranian government officials as monkeys and goats in protest of a draft law which would outlaw voluntary sterilization and restrict access to measures of birth control;
In September 2014 he presided over the case of a man, Mohsen Amir-Aslani, executed for Heresy for describing Jonah and the Whale as an allegory;
Industry:
Human Rights Violator
Also Known As:
Salavati, Abdolghassem
Salavati, Abloqasem
Salavati, Abolghasem
Salavati, Abolqasem
Salavati, Abulghasem
Salavati, Abu’l-Qasim
Salevati, Abughasem
Born:
Mar 1962
Country:
Iran
Address:
Tehran, Iran
Reason for the color:
» Added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 19, 2019 pursuant to Executive Order 13846, which targets, among other things, censorship or other activities that prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran;
» On 13 April 2011, the European Union published the names of 32 officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran whom the E.U. asserts are “responsible for serious human rights violations” and is thus subjecting to travel bans and asset freezes;