Lawyer: “Review of Habibollah Latifi’s Case Has Not Started Yet”

Nemat Ahmadi, one of the two lawyers representing Habibollah Latifi, a Kurdish student who was scheduled for execution last week on the charge of moharebeh, enmity with God, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that no new developments have happened in his client’s case, pertaining to a review of the case. Habibollah Latifi’s execution was halted last week after his family and lawyers’ efforts to convince the Iranian Judiciary to review the case again. “The review has not started yet, and we have not received any new information,” said Nemat Ahmadi about the status of the case and whether the case file has been sent to Tehran. The last detained member of Habibollah Latifi’s family, several of whom were arrested at the prisoner’s father’s home only a few hours after the execution was postponed, was released yesterday. Elaheh Latifi, one of Habibollah Latifi’s sisters, who had been arrested along with her father, brothers, and sisters during a nighttime raid by security forces at home, was released yesterday. But according to a source close to the family, all detained family members were forced to sign promises not to talk to the media, and at this time they are all quarantined. Habibollah Latifi was arrested on 23 October 2007, and was transferred to Sanandaj Prison, where he spent four months in solitary confinement. On 1 July 2008, he was sentenced to death having been determined a mohareb, enemy of God, on charges of “acting against national security and the regime,” by the First Branch of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Courts. He was scheduled for execution on 26 December. Upon his lawyers’ request and his family’s pursuit of a re-trial, Latifi’s execution was halted.