Mohammad Mostafaei, an Iranian death penalty lawyer forced to flee Iran in 2010 for representing a woman facing death by stoning, spoke at a public meeting in Trinity College Dublin last Monday 10 October to mark International Day Against the Death Penalty.
In 2010 Mohammad Mostafaei was forced to flee his native country of Iran where he was working as a human rights lawyer because of his work for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a mother of two facing death by stoning whose case became a major international news story.
Mostafaei’s wife and brother-in-law were imprisoned before international pressure forced the Iranian authorities to release him and allow his wife and child to join him in exile in Norway.
He has represented dozens of men and women facing execution in Iran and is credited with saving more than 50 lives.
“I’ve represented the cases of 40 juvenile offenders in the past several years,” he said through an interpreter. “I was able to save 18 of them.”
Mostafaei is in Ireland as part of a speaking tour for Amnesty International that has seen him visit schools and address public meetings in Galway and Letterkenny. Later this week he will go to Kells and Tralee.
“In Iran they use torture and execution in the place of justice,” he said. “It is hard to comprehend the severity of the situation from afar.
“At a human level I am trying to ease the stress and suffering of the people I work with. As a lawyer I strive to protect them and ensure that justice prevails.
“As an activist I am also trying to change Islamic law and bring the world’s attention to the gross violations of human rights that persist in Iran.”
Urging Irish anti-death penalty activists to continue their work, he said: “In Ireland you have a free press and independent judiciary. You must use these freedoms to continue to support people in Iran and other countries who face the death penalty and other human rights violations.”
