A group of prisoners at Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj wrote a letter to Ayatollah Larjani, head of the Ministry of Justice. The letter, which was provided to CHRR, is below.

With respect and regards

We decided to write you a letter hundreds of times to tell you of our grievances and the hardships we endure, but we knew that the letters would never reach your hands. Therefore a group of us prisoners out of desperation feel obligated to send you our message through the news media.

Mr. Larijani,

For years during our incarceration we have been witness to our dearest friends being executed. We have spent Wednesday nights in tears and prayers. Last week Behjat Kermzadeh and Sogand Jahani were transferred from the women’s ward at Rajai Shahar for execution. By the grace of god and your orders a moratorium was issued and the executions did not take place. The stay of execution was granted to Behjat in prison but Sogand was taken to at the gallows and witnessed six men being executed. Now our 23-year-old Sogand looks like she is 40 years old – she aged 20 years overnight.

Honorable Mr. Larijani,

Informed sources say that this coming Wednesday, 6 female prisoners will be taken to the gallows and one of them is the 28 year old Sahar Mehabadi. Because they could not afford lawyers, she and Sogand Jahani were assigned public defenders who did not prepare or present adequate representation in court.

Honorable Mr. Larijani,

If you conduct a review of these cases you will see that these two women killed their spouses in self-defense without pre meditation. We desperately plead with your Excellency to grant a stay of execution for these two women.

The worried in waiting, Raheleh Zokayi and a group of death row prisoners

Committee of Human Rights Reporters