http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-soheil-arabi.html Petition Background (Preamble): SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 article from IranHumanRights.org: Death Sentence for “Insulting thes Prophet” on Facebook A blogger found guilty of insulting the Prophet Mohammad in his postings on Facebook has been sentenced to death. An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the blogger, Soheil Arabi, will be able to appeal the decision until September 20, 2014. Agents from the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Sarallah Base arrested Soheil Arabi, 30, and his wife in November 2013. Arabi’s wife was released a few hours later, but he was kept in solitary confinement for two months inside IRGC’s Ward 2-A at Evin Prison, before he was transferred to Evin’s General Ward 350. Branch 76 of the Tehran Criminal Court, under Judge Khorasani, found Arabi guilty of “sabb al-nabi” (insulting the Prophet), on August 30, 2014. “The way he was arrested was illegal. It is not clear how the agents were able to enter their home at that time in the morning. All the doors were locked and family members were asleep. Agents entered his home and bedroom. He and his wife were arrested and some of their photographs and personal belongings were taken after their home was searched,” said the source. “Soheil had eight Facebook pages under different names, and he was charged with insulting the Imams and the Prophet because of the contents of those pages. He has accepted his charges, but throughout the trial, he stated that he wrote the material without thinking and in poor psychological condition,” the source told the Campaign. The source noted that the Tehran Penal Court issued its ruling without regard for Article 264 of the Islamic Penal Code. “Article 262 of the Islamic Penal Code states that if a person insults the Prophet of Islam, his punishment is death. But in Article 264, it explicitly says that if a suspect merely claims in court that he said the insulting words in anger, in quoting someone, or by mistake, his death sentence will be converted to 74 lashes. I would like to emphasize that if only the suspect claims this, he will not be eligible for death, and there is no need to even prove his claim,” added the source. “Unfortunately, despite this Article and the explanations provided, the judges issued the death sentence. They didn’t even take any notice of Soheil’s statements in court in which he repeated several times that he wrote the posts under poor [psychological] conditions, and that he is remorseful. Three of the judges ruled for the death sentence, and two ruled for imprisonment,” said the source. According to the source, Soheil Arabi has another judicial case. On September 4, 2014, Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Salavati sentenced Arabi to the maximum punishment of three years in prison on charges of “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “propaganda against the state,” through his writings on Facebook. Source: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2014/09/death-sentence-facebook/ https://hra-news.org/fa/execution/b-279 https://www.facebook.com/PetitionsToFreeIranianPoliticalPrisoners
Congratulations. You have successfully signed the petition: STOP the execution of Soheil Arabi سهیل عربی* را اعدام نکنید You are signer #724
Thank you. I commend you for doing that. Now, the actual problem is the religious law which stems from the ideology that got him in this predicament in the first place.
the problem is the overarching abuse of power states grant themselves when it comes to civil liberties. you sign for your reason, I sign for mine
Fine. What did he get sentenced for again? Was that related to generic civil liberties or was it related to religion?
It was related to a government with an overarching amount of power abusing it. something that can happen because of an absurd religious law. or something that can happen because of drug money flowing back and forth. or any number of unfortunate situations really---notably laws seeking to destroy dissidents, present in some form or another in all countries. Again though, I sign for my reason, you sign for yours.
It depends on the instructions the "lasher" is given. It could be 74 very painful lashes, and it could be 74 soft symbolic lashes depending on their mood that day, and also on who the lashee's friends are. Really sad. I estimate Iranian youth are the least religious group of youth possibly in the world, and this is the environment they live in. If I had to guess, I'd say his appeal will be successful - but that doesn't really solve the core problem there.
It's okay for us to look at it from different angles - as long as we agree that it is a grave injustice, we are on the same side on this particular issue. Yes, it is obviously an abuse of government power, but it's not the only country that uses that reason for the abuse of government power, and sadly, there are countries where the majority of the population agrees with basically the same law.
