Tehran (CNN) Iran is under pressure to halt the executions of three men arrested during anti-government protests in 2019, after the country's Supreme Court upheld their sentences. Following an Iranian social media campaign that attracted millions of posts under several hashtags, including "no to execution" in Farsi, Iran's judiciary said on Thursday that the men's lawyers could appeal their verdicts, despite the ruling, according to Mizan Online, a news agency affiliated with the judiciary. Allowing the appeal appears to be an unusual concession by authorities to review the Supreme Court's decision. In an open letter to the judiciary, lawyers for the three defendants -- Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi -- said that they had not been given access to documents pertaining to their clients' cases, according to semi-official Jamaran News which published the letter Wednesday. The men on death row were convicted of moharebeh -- a crime of taking up arms to take lives or property and to create fear in the public -- and for participating "in vandalism and arson with the intent to counter the Islamic Republic of Iran" during the November protests last year, according to a statement condemning the sentence by more than a dozen UN human rights experts, including special investigators Javaid Rehman and Agnes CallamardRead More

Source: CNN July 16, 2020 21:45 UTC