UN experts condemn secret execution of Haider Ghorbani
Two United Nations experts on Wednesday, December 1st, strongly condemned the secret execution of Haider Ghorbani, a Kurdish prisoner, describing it as a sign of Iran’s “blatant disregard” for its “obligations under international human rights law.”
Javid Rahman, Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, and Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, issued a statement saying that Haider Ghorbani was secretly executed early Sunday morning without prior notification to his family or lawyer at Sanandaj Central Prison, and prison authorities subsequently buried his body in secret.
In their statement, these experts noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran secretly executed Haider Ghorbani through a completely unfair process and based on general charges while his case was still under review in the Supreme Court.
Haider Ghorbani, along with Mahmoud Sadeghi, his brother-in-law, was arrested in September 2016 on charges of “cooperation and assistance in the murder of several Basij members.”
UN experts stated that this Kurdish political prisoner had consistently denied any membership in armed groups and involvement in the killing of Basij forces.
The two UN experts added: “We are deeply regretful that despite multiple requests we made in Mr. Ghorbani’s case, the authorities decided to carry out his execution.”
They continued: “Given the ongoing protests and widespread discontent with Iranian authorities, we are concerned that such arbitrary execution was carried out to create fear and terror.”
These UN experts subsequently called on the Islamic Republic to stop issuing and executing death sentences.
The death sentence for Haider Ghorbani was issued in August 2020, and in recent months human rights activists had repeatedly warned of the possibility of executing this sentence, citing torture and forced confessions extracted from the prisoner.
In September this year, Javid Rahman and 8 other UN human rights experts issued a joint statement noting that this political prisoner had never been armed, expressing “serious concerns about denial of fair trial and torture” of him, and calling for the annulment of Mr. Ghorbani’s death sentence.
Saleh Nikbakht, Mr. Ghorbani’s lawyer, had previously stated that the death sentence for this prisoner was issued based on the charge of “baghi” (armed rebellion): “The condition for the realization of the crime of baghi is an individual’s membership in an armed group and use of weapons against the Islamic Republic, but my client has never made any such confession and the only evidence presented for this charge has been the claims of the Sanandaj and Kamyaran intelligence agency.”
Following the announcement of Haider Ghorbani’s secret execution, a considerable crowd of Kamyaran residents gathered in front of his home on Sunday, despite threats from the Islamic Republic’s security forces.
Source: Radio Farda
