Sunday, December 20, 2015 9:06:25 PM

The Iranian supreme court at Branch 33 had reportedly refused to ratify  the death penalty against Mohammad-Ali Taheri, the  Iranian physician. It is said  that  the case was submitted  to the Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court for possible  reconsideration, the founder of a spiritual group's lawyer Saeed Khalili wrote on his Facebook account.

Mohammad-Ali Taheri, the researcher and an author in the field of Interuniversalist alternative medicine, had been convicted to capital punishment at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court and the court decision received by his lawyer on July 2015.

Dr. Taheri, the founder of a spiritual group so-called "Erfan-E-Halgheh" (deviated Halqeh Cult) who has been in Evin prison since May 2011, was sentenced to death on the charge of "Ifsad fi al-Arz" (spreading corruption on Earth) under Islamic Penal Code, rights groups said.

He has been in the solitary confinement since his arrest, and in November 2014, he started a dry hunger strike (whereby a prisoner refuses both food and water) for 25 days to protest against his unfair isolation inside Ward 2-A Sepah at Evin prison in Iran's capital, Tehran.

Mr. Taheri asked Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, to review his case by sending an open letter in April 2014.

Hereof, Amnesty International has concerned about Mr.Taheri's critical situation in a statement on 30 August 2014. Moreover, Amnesty International started a campaign to release Mr. Taheri sending a letter immediately to Iran's authorities. 

Mohammad Ali Taheri was detained on 4 May 2011 by officials linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and held incommunicado for nine months in Ward 2-A of the Evin Prison. Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran convicted him, on 30 October 2011, of "insulting Islamic sanctities" and allegedly sentenced him to five years in prison after four court sessions in which he defended himself.

By: Kaveh Taheri