Amnesty International: Seven Kurdish Sunni Prisoners at Rajai Shahr Prison Face Death Penalty
Amnesty International warned on Wednesday, March 1st, by issuing a statement that seven Kurdish Sunni prisoners at Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj are in danger of execution.
According to the human rights organization’s announcement, Anwar Khezri, Ayoub Karimi, Davoud Abdollahi, Farhad Salimi, Ghasem Absateh, Kamran Sheikheh, and Khosro Besharat were sentenced to death in June 2018 by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran on charges including “corruption on earth.”
Amnesty International described the trial of these seven citizens as “severely unjust” and pointed out that the court’s verdict was based on “confessions” that, according to these prisoners, were extracted from them under torture.
According to this report, these seven Kurdish Sunnis were arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and accused of membership in Salafi groups, but they have denied these charges.
These individuals were arrested from mid-December 2009 to early February 2010 in the West Azerbaijan Province.
Amnesty International’s report also indicates that the court judge even denied these seven individuals the right to legal defense.
Amnesty International has called for the annulment of the convictions and death sentences of these seven individuals and the establishment of conditions for a new and fair trial for them.
In the supplementary section of its statement, this human rights organization detailed some information related to the torture of these seven death row prisoners.
At least four of these seven Kurdish prisoners have written open letters describing torture by Ministry of Intelligence agents during their interrogations.
Anwar Khezri wrote in February 2019 that after enduring nearly two months of torture following his arrest, including beatings and repeated blows to the chest, head, and soles of feet in the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility—which he called the Ministry of Intelligence “torture chamber”—he attempted suicide.
The European Parliament at the end of February this year, by passing a resolution, called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately suspend the death penalty.
The resolution referred to the issue of rampant execution of women and minority groups in Iran, particularly since the government of Ebrahim Raisi came to power.
The United Nations also previously stated in its annual report on human rights violations in Iran that at least 275 people were executed in 2021 alone. According to this report, 40 of those executed in 2021 were Baloch citizens and 50 were Kurdish citizens.
Source: Radio Farda
