An Interview with the Mother of a Death Row Prisoner

HRANA News Agency – “I am ready to give my life to stop the execution”, this sentence was repeated during the interview many times. “I got 10 years older during past three years, his sister is suffering from depression, everything in life has changed, if my son had died in Halabcheh or died in an accident, it would not be this much painful. Execution is not just a person’s death, it is the death of a family, the death of honor and it makes people shameful”.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Hadi is one of 100s of prisoners who have been sentenced to death for crimes related to drugs. His sentence has been confirmed in January and was sent to the bureau of execution of sentences. Hadi is waiting every minute that the sirens call his name to say goodbye to his friends for the last time.

Hadi’s mother told the story of her son during the interview, from a volunteer soldier, to being a victim of chemical weapons, to being arrested and sentenced to death. “He was 18 years old and like many others at his age volunteered to be a soldier and left his school. His father and did not agree with him. It was until we heard that he was injured by chemical weapons. After 20 days in Kermanshah hospital, he got better but still had respiratory and heart problems”.

After he came back, he continued his education and got diploma and became an electrical technician. “He married and had a very small life. Later we realized that he was addicted, even though he was still working. He had struggles with his wife, couple of times tried to get clean but he could not, that was until he got divorced 20 days before being arrested”.

Hadi along with his 4 friends were arrested in his house on charge of possessing drugs, “for two months we did not have any information, after two months we realized that he was kept in Kahrizak detention where his lungs were infected. They were pouring cold water in cold weather on him. After two months he was sent to Ghezelhesar prison. Three months later someone called from the hospital and said that ‘your son is here and he gave me your phone number, he had heart surgery and if you like you can come for a visit’”.

She said after Kahrizak his respiratory and heart problem got very sever and he had two open-heart surgeries. Even now in prison, he has to take a lot of medicine in any kind, “when his sentence was not issued and we went to put bail and get furlough, we were told that probably his sentence was death and they could not accept bail. I told them, ‘let us presume that his sentence would be death, you should not let him die like this.’ The court administrator said ‘do you think here is Switzerland?’”.

Hadi did not have a lawyer during the case processing and after two months he contacted his family for the first time. His mother said even these drug cases became a source of fraud by some lawyers. “A lawyer first told us to deposit 15 million Tomans to his account. After that his did not visit Hadi even for one time, and he does not answer the phone anymore”.

About her son’s crime she said, “He said maybe he was guilty but, the punishment was not fair by any way. Even if he was guilty, how it was possible that 5 people without committing any crime, just for a wrongdoing would be eliminated. I am his mother and yet do not know anything, if he was charged for homicide, I would go and see victim’s family, but now I cannot do anything.”

She said that currently she was just following the news related to cancellation of death sentence on drug related charges. “When I hear a good news I get happy and when someone says that the death sentence should exist my sights become black. I am afraid that one day in the news I read that my son has been executed or that they may pass the bill but say that your son’s sentence was before this bill”.

She said she could not get the picture of his son’s execution out of her head and it had become a nightmare for her. But she was afraid that if she would say something, they would cut his son’s medicine in prison or put him under pressure.

During the interview she started crying multiple times but she continued. Last time she could not stop it and hanged the phone.