Abolqasem Salavati

The Alayi brothers’ "crime" seems to have been to participate in a seminar held by the non-government Aspen Institute in Washington.

"When I asked what foreign organization and which individuals [I met], he couldn’t even name them. I was accused of a range of charges but my entire court hearing lasted no more than eight minutes," said the former prisoner, who did not want to be named. "From the nature of the court proceedings, you could tell the judge had already made up his mind. My appearance there with a lawyer was merely to uphold the pretence of due process.

In December 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Salavati for "censorship or other activities that prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran."

On 1 June 2015, judge Salavati convicted the cartoonist Atena Farghadani to 12 years and nine months in prison. on the charges of "colluding against national security", "spreading propaganda against the system" and "insulting members of the parliament" through her artwork. She had depicted Iranian government officials as monkeys and goats in protest of a draft law which would outlaw voluntary sterilization and restrict access to measures of birth control.

In September 2014 he presided over the case of a man, Mohsen Amir-Aslani, executed for Heresy for describing Jonah and the Whale as an allegory.

On June 2, 2013, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved a recommendation by the head of the judiciary. Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, to release some of the 81 under amnesty and reduce the sentences of the rest. None of those eligible has been named, but most had been convicted by Revolutionary Court system, which is separate from the civil judiciary and are tasked with dealing with threats to the Islamic regime and the constitutional order. As such, they led the way in trying people detained in the wave of arrests that followed protests sparked after 2009 presidential election.

Within the Revolutionary Courts, three judges – Abolghasem Salavati, Mohammad Moghiseh and Pir-Abbasi – stand out for their role in presiding over joint and individual trials involving hundreds of defendants.

Salavati sentenced 20-year-old student Mohammad Amin Valian to death on a single piece of evidence – the defendant's own confession that he threw three rocks during the unrest.

At least 12 death sentences are believed to have been passed against alleged participants in the protests that followed the June 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, and Salavati was responsible for half of these, winning him the grim nickname "Judge of Death".

In January 2009 Salavati found four people guilty of colluding with the United States government against Iran for working on an HIV/AIDS prevention programme. Arash and Kamyar Alayi, brothers who were both doctors, got six- and three-year sentences, respectively, while Silva Haratounian and Mohammad Ehsani received three-year terms.

Salavati seems to have proved his credentials with this case. His judicial backing for the intelligence agency's pursuit of alleged dissidents made him the ideal candidate to take a leading role in the post-election trials of 2009, the biggest political cases in two decades.

"He told me that during two interrogation sessions, his sister was brought into the room and seated opposite him. He was then told that if he wanted her to go free, he must confess to whatever he was told," she said. "I was Arash's lawyer, but I was never allowed to participate in his trial. I insisted to be allowed to attend a trial session in August [2009] but security officers threatened to arrest me and confiscated my lawyer's license, which they returned to me only later."

Another controversial case was heard following the December 2009 protests over the election result, which coincided with the Shia holy day Ashura.

His name first became publicly known in December 2006 when he passed death sentences against two defendants for the 2005 murder of Masoud Ahmadi Moghaddasi, deputy chief prosecutor for Tehran and himself a Revolutionary Court judge, who headed the same branch that Salavati later took charge of.

Abolghasem Salavati (Persian: ابوالقاسم صلواتی ‎; born 16 July 1967) is the head of the 15th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Iran. In recent years, he has been the judge of numerous controversial cases.