NCRI - The Iranian regime’s judiciary has sentenced to death political prisoner Mohammad Ali Taheri, his attorney told news agencies on Sunday.
Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei told The Associated Press that the court has sentenced his client to death on charges of “founding a cult.”
The 61-year-old Taheri has been held in solitary confinement for over six years in Tehran’s Evin prison.
In an Urgent Action issued in July, Amnesty International had warned about Mr. Taheri facing death Penalty.
Amnesty International statement said: “Prisoner of conscience Mohammad Ali Taheri is accused of ‘spreading corruption on earth’ (efsad-e fel arz) through the establishment of the spiritual group Erfan-e Halgheh and its related teachings. His trial started on 6 March before Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.”
“This is the third time that Mohammad Ali Taheri is standing trial on the charge of ‘spreading corruption on earth’. The first time was in 2011 when a Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment for ‘insulting Islamic sanctities’ but said further investigations were necessary before it could rule on the charge of “spreading corruption on earth”
“For the next four years, the authorities kept him in solitary confinement in Section 2A of Evin prison, where he remains imprisoned, under the pretext of conducting investigations. This time counted toward his five-year sentence, which was deemed complete in February 2016. He was ultimately tried again on the charge of ‘spreading corruption on earth’ in 2015 and sentenced to death, but he was acquitted in June 2016. Despite this, he was not released and in late 2016, the authorities charged him again with ‘spreading corruption on earth’ based on the same activities that had formed the basis of his 2011 conviction.”
On Sunday, a group of Mr Taheri’s followers gathered outside “Revolutionary Court” in Tehran to protest the death penalty.
In recent weeks, authorities have detained dozens of his followers protesting ill treatment of Mr. Taheri.
Source: NCRI, August 27, 2017
Iran Sentences Faith Healing Shiite Mystic to Death
TEHRAN — The founder of a mystical, New Age version of Shiite Islam was sentenced to death by an Iranian court after losing an appeal, his lawyer said on Monday.
However, the religious mystic, Mohammad Ali Taheri, who was convicted on charges of founding a cult, is entitled to another appeal, the lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, said. An earlier death sentence for blasphemy against the 61-year old was overturned in 2014 by an appeals court.
In recent weeks, dozens of Mr. Taheri’s followers have been arrested across the country, especially around the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
But opponents of the spiritual leader say his conviction has nothing to do with proselytizing for a cult, saying he has had “illegitimate” sexual relations with women.
“He has committed sodomy,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, a hard-line political analyst. Sodomy, if testified to by at least four separate witnesses, also carries the death sentence in Iran. His followers deny the accusations.
Around 2005, Mr. Taheri, a researcher in alternative medicines, founded a group called Circle of Mysticism, focused on faith-based healings and their understandings of the universe. Initially, Mr. Taheri’s teachings were tolerated by Iran’s religious establishment, which is quite restrictive about alternative versions of its understanding of Shiite Islam. He was allowed to give public speeches and publish books, and attracted a following across the country.
In a video laying out his theories, Mr. Taheri says that “humans are as extensive as the universe and are comprised of infinite parts.” He says that people can act as healers and find cures, using “ultra healing, which works beyond human knowledge.”
As Mr. Taheri’s following grew, hard-line clerics started objecting to his practices, saying that he was a “false mystic” and that his group was “a deviant sect.”
He was first arrested in 2010 but released soon after. In 2011, Mr. Taheri was arrested again, and has remained in prison ever since.
In rejecting his appeal on Sunday, a revolutionary court ruled that he was “spreading corruption on earth,” an Islamic ruling often reserved for apostates, political figures and fraudulent businessmen, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.
Also on Sunday, a couple dozen of his followers protested the death sentence in front of one of Tehran’s revolutionary courts. It is unclear if any of these people were arrested. Some months ago, during a similar protest, in front of Evin prison in Tehran, several were arrested.
“He has taught me to connect to god through happiness not sorrow,” said Saba Motmaen, a 27-year-old web administrator and follower of Mr. Taheri. While she has never met him herself, she said that the spiritual world was more dear to her than her own life, and that he had opened it up to her.
“He is a great teacher, who taught me and others how to connect to god. Many great people have gone to the scaffolds,” she said. “He has stood by his beliefs. This proves his righteousness.”
Source:
The New York Times, Thomas Erdbrink, August 28, 2017
Taheri’s Death Sentence Will Not Stand, Says Hopeful Lawyer
The lawyer for imprisoned Iranian spiritual leader Mohammad Ali Taheri is optimistic that the latest death sentence against his client will again be turned down upon appeal.
The verdict, issued by Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court on August 27, 2017 on the charge of “corruption on earth” will be appealed within the 20-day legal deadline, attorney Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaee told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
“The Supreme Court has already rejected the death sentence against my client on the same charge and I am hopeful that it will once again declare the verdict unlawful and reject it,” said Tabatabaee.
The attorney added that the verdict had been issued on the basis of Article 286 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code which states, “Any person, who extensively commits felony against the bodily entity of people, offenses against internal or international security of the state, spreading lies, disruption of the economic system of the state, arson and destruction of properties, distribution of poisonous and bacterial and dangerous materials, and establishment of, or aiding and abetting in, places of corruption and prostitution, [on a scale] that causes severe disruption in the public order of the state and insecurity, or causes harsh damage to the bodily entity of people or public or private properties, or causes distribution of corruption and prostitution on a large scale, shall be considered as mofsed-e-fel-arz [corrupt on earth] and shall be sentenced to death.”
As leader of the Erfan-e Halgheh spiritual organization established in the 2000s, Taheri, 61, was arrested on May 4, 2010 and charged with “insulting the sacred,” “immoral contact with women,” and “carrying out illegal medical procedures.” At the time, he also taught at Tehran University and practiced a form of alternative medicine.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and 74 lashes, along with a nine-billion rial (approximately $300,000 USD) fine. But instead of being released at the end of his sentence, he was re-questioned about his books and sentenced to death for spreading “corruption on earth.” In December 2015, the Supreme Court rejected the death penalty and asked the lower court to review and issue a new sentence.
“I don’t understand such a sentence being issued in today’s world where freedom of speech is respected,” Taheri’s sister, Azardokht, told CHRI in reaction to the second death sentence.
“More importantly, the Supreme Court had already acquitted my brother and rejected his execution. So how can you sentence him to death again for the same charge?
“His sentence must be thrown out and he should go free. Any outcome other than his freedom will be unusual and unlawful. This is the verdict his interrogators decided for him. The trial was just a pretense.
“They say the sentence is based on charges stemming from his writings. But they denied several requests by my brother for copies of his book in prison to prepare for his defense. He wrote the books 10 years ago and he’s been in prison since 2010. He needed to read his books again to be able to defend himself.”
Iran’s security establishment has
cracked down on Taheri and supporters of his Erfan-e Halgheh spiritual group, viewing it and any other organized alternative beliefs as a threat to the prevailing Shia religious establishment.
During a
speech on December 28, 2016, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the emergence of spiritual groups in Iran as a Western plot to undermine Islam.
“The enemies are plotting to weaken our young people’s faith in Islam and Islamic principles by encouraging promiscuity and promoting false spirituality, Bahaism and home churches,” he said.
In March 2017, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) aired a documentary titled “
The Devil’s Circle,” which included alleged “confessions” from Taheri and several of his followers about the group’s ideology and activities. In the heavily edited interviews, Taheri’s “students” claimed he taught anti-Islamic ideas.
:
Center for Human Rights in Iran, August 28, 2917
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