A/HRC/25/60/Add.2 67. The Special Rapporteur regrets that the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not responded to this communication, thereby failing to cooperate with the mandate issued by the Human Rights Council. The communication referred to the alleged risk of imminent execution of Messrs. Ghazi Abbasi, Abdul-Reza Amir-Khanafereh, Abdul-Amir Mojaddami, and Jasim Moghaddam Payam, members of the Ahwazi Arab minority, following proceedings in violation of their right to fair trial, due process guarantees and not to be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Additionally, Messrs. Shahab Abbasi, Sami Jadmavinejad, and Hadi Albokhanfarnejad, also members of the Ahwazi Arab minority, are allegedly imprisoned in violation of their right to fair trial, due process guarantees, and not to be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It is reported that on 15 August 2012, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Ahwaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, found the seven men guilty of charges of moharebeh (“enmity against God”) and ifsad fil-arz (“corruption on earth”). The seven individuals were allegedly accused of the murders of a police officer and a conscripted soldier. The Revolutionary Court reportedly found that the defendants had established a “separatist ethnic” group that “used weapons and engaged in shooting in order to create fear and panic and disrupt public security”. Messrs. Abbasi, Amir-Khanafereh, Mojaddami, and Payam were sentenced to death, and Messrs. Shahab Abbasi, Sami Jadmavinejad, and Hadi Albokhanfarnejad, were sentenced to three years in prison. In February 2013, Branch 32 of Iran’s Supreme Court reportedly upheld the sentences pronounced in each case. According to the information received, the proceedings against the seven men were conducted in violation of their rights to a fair trial and due process. The accused were reportedly held in incommunicado pre-trial detention for months, subjected to torture and ill-treatment for the purpose of extracting confessions, and denied full access to a defense lawyer. Both the Revolutionary Court and Supreme Court judgments reportedly acknowledge that some of the defendants retracted their confessions during the trial, claiming that they had been extracted under physical and psychological torture; however, the judgments do not acknowledge the validity of those retractions. There is allegedly no record of any investigation into the allegations of torture or ill-treatment. In this context, the Special Rapporteur recalls that, as stated in his report to the General Assembly (A/67/279; 9 August 2012), the Special Rapporteur finds that even if the emergence of a customary norm that considers the death penalty as per se running afoul of the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is still under way, most conditions under which capital punishment is actually applied render the punishment tantamount to torture. Under many other, less severe conditions, it still amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Due to the lack of information provided by the Government, the Special Rapporteur concludes that Messrs. Ghazi Abbasi, Abdul-Reza Amir-Khanafereh, AbdulAmir Mojaddami, and Jasim Moghaddam Payam, Shahab Abbasi, Sami Jadmavinejad, and Hadi Albokhanfarnejad have been imprisoned in violation of their right to fair trial, due process guarantees, and not to be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and that the Government did not live up to its obligation to investigate the allegations of torture or ill-treatment. The Special Rapporteur also reiterates that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever can be invoked to justify torture by the Government and that therefore the rights of Messrs. Ghazi Abbasi, Abdul-Reza AmirKhanafereh, Abdul-Amir Mojaddami, and Jasim Moghaddam Payam, Shahab Abbasi, Sami Jadmavinejad, and Hadi Albokhanfarnejad have been violated. (h) UA 22/08/2013 Case No. IRN 13/2013 State reply: None to date Alleged risk of imminent execution, torture, ill-treatment, forced confession, and denial of medical care. 68. The Special Rapporteur regrets that the Government of Iran has not responded to this communication, thereby failing to cooperate with the mandate issued by the Human Rights Council. The communication referred to the alleged risk of imminent execution and grave threats to the health of Dr. Mohammad Ali Taheri, an honorary doctor and author of 48