Aida Younesi: My Brother Has Been Pressured to Make A Confession on TV
Published by Ali on September 8, 2020
International Liberty Association: Aida Younesi, the sister of detained award-winning student Ali Younesi says her brother has been pressured to make televised confessions to commute his death sentence.
“The Ministry of Intelligence agents in charge of investigating my brother’s case told him on Wednesday that he will not be sentenced to death if he makes a televised confession”, Aida Younesi said in a tweet on Saturday, 6 September.
Intelligence Ministry agents literally told his brother that they are responsible to decide about his fate, not the court, Aida said.
She added that they told him: “We will decide the judge’s verdict. If we want, the verdict would be a death penalty … but you would be spared provided you accept to have a televised confession.”
Iranian authorities arrested Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, both award-winning students at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, on 10 April this year. These two students were taken to the Ward 209 of Evin Prison run by the judiciary’s intelligence branch. They were transferred to a general ward after spending 59 days in solitary confinement.
Detained award-winning student Ali Younesi has been permitted a few brief telephone calls with his family since his arrest and has been denied access to a lawyer.
His family was informed by a prosecutor that he has been charged with “undertaking destruction” without providing further information.
The Judiciary Spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, during his weekly press conference, on 5 May, said that the two young men were involved in subversive operations and were ready to engage in actions to sabotage Iran.
ILA: Ali Younesi has won gold medals in Iran’s National Astronomy Olympiad and the 2018 International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in China.
