Zaniar and Loghman Moradi, cousins, were arrested in 2009 on charges of "enmity to God and corruptors on earth," and a year later they were sentenced to death by Judge Salevati, known as Tehran's "Hanging Judge." Both were twenty years old at the time of their arrest.
 Zaniar Moradi on the left and Loghman Moradi on the right. |
In a letter dated February 7, 2012 from the dreaded Rajai-Shahr Prison, they wrote that they had "been subjected to unspeakable forms of torture for thirty months; kept in solitary confinement and had no access to family or lawyers." They said that due to repeated physical, psychological and sexual torture, they were finally forced to confess to the murder. In the same letter; the cousins simply ask for a fair trial -- an impossibility in the courts of the Islamic Republic, where trials routinely last only a few minutes, with no evidence, no lawyers and no jury. The accused can be sentenced to hang publicly at any time, most likely from a crane, commonly used for hangings there to ensure the slowest and most painful suffocation. The method does not use a trap door, but instead the accused is hoisted up slowly so that death will not be instantaneous.
According to reports received by HRANA News Agency, Zaniar Moradi is now paralyzed as a result of the torture he suffered, and can only move by crawling or with the help of other prisoners. He is also apparently in excruciating pain from a spinal infection and serious testicular damage, both sustained during torture. He is denied medication. As stated by HRANA News Agency's latest report on January 8, 2014, Mr. Mardani, the warden of the prison, has stated: "We do not pay any costs for inmates who are sentenced to death." Aside from lack of painkillers or basic medical care, prison officials have offered no aid for his paralysis.
Both men risk further punishment by writing letters to various human rights organizations and United Nations representatives -- to no avail. Both await execution at any time.
