Two Iranian twin sisters had their hair pulled out and their bones broken in a torture ordeal as punishment for joining anti-regime protests in January.
It’s about Taraneh and Romina Rahimi, who were just 19 years old when they were captured and still in high school. They were kidnapped from their beds by masked men sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the middle of the night.
Now, Taraneh has been sentenced to death by hanging for her participation in the demonstrations, and Romina has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
After they were taken, their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, spent four painful months desperately trying to find her daughters.
The two young women were unrecognizable at the time of their mother’s first visit to Dowlatabad prison in Isfahan in May, writes “DailyMail”.
Their scalps were stained from dragging their hair, while their faces appeared bruised, according to a cousin based in the United States.
Taraneh, who has ambitions to run her own horse stable in the future, was reportedly told that prison guards would rape Romina in front of her eyes if she did not sign a confession.
Their lawyers reported that during the trial, the girl stated that every confession she made was made under torture, while the family confirms that the documents never revealed any evidence of their involvement in violence during the demonstrations.
Court documents from the trial, which the mother was unable to attend, reveal a dramatic change in the verdict that the family cannot explain: Taraneh was sentenced to death, while Romina will serve 25 years in prison.
Since the sentences were handed down, no relatives have been able to see the two girls, and the family’s main fear is the speedy execution of the death sentence, as in several recent cases the regime has executed convicts without respecting the time allowed for appeals.
To report the incident, cousin Masoud Nourmohammadi decided to go public with the case in the Guardian, despite death threats he received at his home in the United States. Meanwhile, in Isfahan, their mother Marzieh continues to wait to see her daughters again, living in constant fear that Taraneh’s death sentence will be carried out at any moment.