Iran’s Supreme Court announced on Saturday that it had ordered a new trial for three young men sentenced to death in connection with the deadly riots of November 2019.
The Judicial Authority announced in July the suspension of the verdict against the three defendants after its confirmation by the Supreme Court a few days earlier had sparked outrage in Iran and around the world.
“The request for a new trial for the three death row inmates in connection with the incidents of (November 2019) has been accepted,” said a statement from the Supreme Court published on its website.
“The case will be retried by another court”, adds the text without specifying the expectations of the Court.
Me Babak Paknia, one of the defense lawyers, said on Twitter that he had been notified of this decision.
In July, Me Paknia told AFP that the accused were three friends: Amirhossein Moradi, 26, seller of mobile phones, Saïd Tamdjidi, 28, driver of Snapp (Iranian equivalent of Uber) and Mohammad Radjabi, 26 years, unemployed.
All three had been sentenced to death for “collusion with a view to endangering internal security” and “setting fire and destruction of public property with the intention (to harm) the political system of the Islamic Republic”, he said.
From November 15 to 18, 2019, a hundred cities in Iran were affected by a protest movement – violently repressed – against the sudden announcement of a sharp rise in the price of gasoline in the midst of the economic crisis.
During what the government described as “riots” orchestrated by foreign “enemies”, police stations were attacked, shops looted and banks and gas stations burned. The authorities had imposed a one-week internet shutdown.
After months of refusing to provide a toll of victims of the violence, Iranian authorities ended up declaring that 230 people had been killed.
Denouncing an “illegal” and disproportionate use of force by power, the human rights organization Amnesty International estimates at least 304 the number of protesters killed, including 23 minors.
A group of independent experts working for the UN estimated that the toll of the clashes could be more than 400 dead.