Mohammad Amin Valian

Mohammad Amin Valian (born March, 31 1989) is an Iranian student who was sentenced to death for participating in a 28 December 2009 demonstration protesting the 2009 presidential election in Iran.[1] According to elple.net, charges listed against him were "Moharebeh, conspiracy to undermine national security, spreading propaganda, insulting high government officials." Among his crimes are

chanting "Death to the dictator;" statements released by the Central Council of Islamic Association of Damghan Science University, of which he is a member; and arranging debates between two marginal election candidates at the university. The evidence used against him included pictures of him throwing rocks at an Ashura protest[2]

He was convicted of Moharebeh, or defiance of God, under Iranian Islamic law. Valian was an electoral campaigner in the town of Damghan for 2009 presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and is also a member of reformist student group called Office for Strengthening Unity[1] and studied at Damaghan Science University.[2]

Valian is one of 11 people sentenced to death so far for taking part in opposition protests challenging the legitimacy of the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As of March 2010, two of the eleven have been executed.[1]

Iranian opposition leaders and some Islamic scholars have criticised the use of moharabeh and the death penalty against street protests,[3] and in a 5 March 2010 statement the US government criticized his sentence as "disproportionate."[4]