'Awaiting my execution': Stop Saman's execution

Update, 10 March: After thousands of you around the world took action in February, it's now clear Saman's scheduled execution never took place on 19 February.

For several days after Saman's scheduled execution date, no information came from the Iranian prison authorities. Saman's family were left in the dark, fearing the worst. 

Our researchers have now found out that Saman was transferred to a different prison in secret, on or around 19 February, and that he's still there.

Saman Naseem was just 17 when he was arrested for being a member of an opposition group in Iran. He was sentenced to death after an unfair trial, and says hs confession, which he retracted in trial, was tortured out of him.

Tweet and Facebook the authorities in Iran

Contacting the authorities overseeing Saman's execution could have positive impact on the case - if enough people take action. While we're also lobbying Iranian authorities, we'd like you to contact them on public spaces like Twitter and Facebook.

Send two tweets...

To send a tweet, just hit the buttons below. We've written one suggested tweet for Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, and one for President Hassan Rouhani. But please feel free to edit these tweets with your own words - your tweets will have more impact if they're all different.

Tweet #SaveSaman Please halt execution of Saman Naseem & grant him a judicial review @Khamenei_ir

Tweet #SaveSaman Please halt Saman Naseem’s execution & end the #DeathPenalty for juvenile offenders @HassanRouhani

...and two Facebook messages

You can also leave a message on President Rouhani's  and Ayatollah Khamenei's Facebook pages by adding a comment on any of their posts. You can use our suggested tweets, and again it'll have more impact if you tweak them with your own words.

Not on Twitter or Facebook? You can still contact the Ayatollahs via details in our urgent action.

Facing execution for 'crimes' committed as a juvenile

23-year-old Salman was only 17 when he was arrested in July 2011 for being a member of the armed opposition group Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK).

While in custody, he says he was repeatedly tortured - including having his fingernail and toenails pulled out, and being hung upside-down from the ceiling while blindfolded.

He was sentenced to death after an unfair trial for allegedly taking part in armed activities against the state.

Saman told our researcher what happened to him. These are Saman's words:

'They told me they would kill me right there'

Torture started as soon as I entered the cell. The cell itself had been designed with the sole aim of inflicting psychological torture: it was just two metres long and 50 cm wide, with a toilet. I could only lie down in it horizontally. There was a camera over my head which recorded all my movements, even when I was using the toilet.

That was the start of 97 days of torture and suffering. During those first days, the level of torture was so high that I was left unable to walk. My entire body was black and blue. They hung me from my hands and feet for hours. I was blindfolded the whole time. I could not see the interrogators and torturers.

They used all kinds of inhumane and illegal methods to try and extract confessions from me. They repeatedly told me that they had arrested members of my family including my father, my mother, and my brother.

They told me that they would bury me with a digger. They told me that they would kill me right there and would cover my grave with cement.

When I wanted to sleep at night, they would not let me rest. They would make noises in different ways, including by constantly banging on the door. I was between madness and consciousness. All 97 days passed like this. I was 17 years old.

I was not allowed any contact with my family during this time. In an utterly inhumane act, they filmed my interrogations, when I was hanging between life and death, under pressure and the risk of torture. I can say now that those interviews are absolute lies and I deny their content. Later, a news report was released on state TV that implied I had been freed and had gone home. I was actually being sentenced to death, based on a ‘confession’ that had been pre-written.

My trial was a show… I was not given any opportunity to defend myself. The judge threatened to beat me a number of times and my lawyers were removed under pressure… I could be executed at any moment.