\n<\/p>\n
The family of 21-year-old twins who have been sentenced respectively to death and decades in jail for protesting against the Iranian regime have appealed to the United Nations for help.<\/p>\n
A formal \u201csubmission of information\u201d relating to the case of Taraneh and Romina Rahimi has been submitted by British human right lawyers on their family\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
The move could lead to the UN\u2019s human rights council opening talks with the Iranian regime about resolving the case if it is found to involve human rights violations.<\/p>\n
The president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, told the UN\u2019s general assembly in New York this week that the country was \u201cready for dialogue and diplomacy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were taken from their beds by men from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps eight months ago after they joined nationwide protests against the regime.<\/p>\n
They were tried over charges that included moharebeh<\/em> (waging war against God) for taking to the streets of Isfahan, in central Iran, on 8 and 9 January.<\/p>\n At the end of August, Taraneh, along with nine others, was sentenced to death. Romina received a 25-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n The girls\u2019 family are seeking to appeal against the sentences but human rights groups have raised concerns that Taraneh\u2019s execution could be fast-tracked.<\/p>\n The women are being held in Dowlatabad prison in Isfahan, where the twins\u2019 family claim that Taraneh was threatened with being forced to watch the rape of her sister if she failed to sign a confession to her alleged crimes.<\/p>\n The sisters have been held in isolation but are said to have been able to hear each other\u2019s screams as torture was inflicted upon them.<\/p>\n Neither of the women have been seen by their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, or other members of the family since their sentencing.<\/p>\n After the Guardian highlighted the case, the women\u2019s cousin, Masoud Nourmohammadi, an IT engineer who lives in the US state of Utah, said Taraneh was told she would only be allowed to eat leftovers of other prisoners\u2019 meals as punishment.<\/p>\n Nourmohammadi, 43, said he had turned to the UN out of desperation.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/span>Free newsletter |<\/span>Every fortnight<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sign up to Global Dispatch<\/span><\/p>\n Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features, opinion and photography, curated by our global development team<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Taraneh is said to be in need of surgery due to injuries inflicted during interrogation.<\/p>\n Nourmohammadi said: \u201cTurning to the United Nations is not something I ever wanted to have to do. I am simply asking the international community to help ensure that Taraneh and Romina receive the basic rights that every human being is entitled to: a fair process, protection from torture and abuse, access to medical care and legal counsel, and the right to have their cases genuinely reviewed.<\/p>\n \u201cTaraneh is facing the death penalty, and Romina is facing decades in prison. They are young women who should be thinking about their futures, not whether one sister will be executed and the other will spend the best years of her life behind bars.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are my family and I will continue to use every peaceful and legal avenue available. I ask the United Nations to stand with them before it is too late \u2013 especially for Taraneh.\u201d<\/p>\n A submission to the UN through its \u201cspecial procedures\u201d can lead to a formal request by the international organisation to a member state for an explanation and action.<\/p>\n Iran has executed more than 500 people this year, including at least 16 women. Hundreds of protesters have been sentenced to death or are facing charges which could carry the death penalty, including more than 70 in Isfahan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The family of 21-year-old twins who have been sentenced respectively to death and decades in jail for protesting against the Iranian regime have appealed to the United Nations for help. A formal \u201csubmission of information\u201d relating to the case of Taraneh and Romina Rahimi has been submitted by British human right lawyers on their family\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[376,7155,2906,84,1836,4588,2250,7016],"class_list":{"0":"post-52325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-death","9":"tag-decades","10":"tag-family","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-iranian","13":"tag-jail","14":"tag-sentenced","15":"tag-twins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}