Did you see the magic?! After months of court activity and investigation by families of the Kahrizak victims and the victims themselves, three individuals were sentenced to “ghesas” (retaliation): two police officers and one ordinary prisoner (described as a violent criminal).  Meanwhile, a Majlis report has named former Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi as the main perpetrator of the Kahrizak crimes.  Eyewitnesses identify Revolutionary Court prosecutor Heidarifard as having played a central role in sending detainees to the facility.  And although government officials have denied involvement by Tehran’s police chief Ahmadreza Radan in the Kahrizak crimes, we at least know that, during a press conference, Radan described the Kahrizak crimes as a tiny mistake!

And once again magic takes place in Iran’s judiciary: Mortazavi, Heidarifard and Radan are put in the hat and some time later two police officers and a prisoner come out!  Individuals whose names we do not know are sentenced to death and a short report is published by newspapers that the three main perpetrators of the Kahrizak crimes have “gone to hell.”  And we remain and our unanswered quest for truth; our anger from lack of justice; and the question of, should we have not protested their death sentences as we protest other death sentences?  In the end, we remain and the upside down, upside down world!

Suppose they say that they police officers, whose names have not yet been announced, ordered the crimes.  The question is, who were the perpetrators?  Did that ordinary criminal commit all the murders and tortures by himself?  Official reports declare that at least three individuals were killed at Kahrizak or within hours of having been transferred out of the facility due to severe physical injuries and lack of access to medical treatment (Amir Javadifar, Mohsen Rouholamini and Mohammad Kamrani).  The official number of individuals who have filed complaints for violations at the Kahrizak facility is 104.  When we put all of this together, we can easily conclude that the Kahrizak crimes could not have been perpetrated only by two rogue officers and one prisoner.

Is it not time, on our behalf, and on behalf of the victims and the Iranian people, to say: Gentlemen! Enough magic! We know and you know that the story cannot vanish with the execution of three individuals; indeed, no injury can be cured by more death and execution.  The only thing that can satisfy us is knowing the truth about all victims of Kahrizak; the truth about the death of Ramin Pourandarjani, the assigned physician at the facility; and the description of what transpired from the perpetrators of the crimes, on national television.  If, in current Iran, with the current judiciary, which is not independent and party to the Kahrizak crimes, we cannot do that, one day that will be done in fair trials in international courts.  We will not just be alive for that day; we live for that day!