Amnesty International: Haidar Ghorbani, Kurdish Political Prisoner at Risk of Execution
Amnesty International announced on Tuesday, September 1st, that Haidar Ghorbani, a Kurdish political prisoner accused of “rebellion,” is at imminent risk of execution.
Amnesty International, in a letter to Ebrahim Raisi, the Head of the Judiciary, has called on him to overturn Haidar Ghorbani’s death sentence and ensure he receives a fair trial.
The letter states that Haidar Ghorbani, 47 years old, who is imprisoned in Sanandaj Prison, had his request for case review by the Supreme Court rejected on September 7th of the current year, and he is now at risk of execution at any moment.
This international human rights organization states that despite numerous flaws in the unfair legal proceedings of Haidar Ghorbani’s case, the 27th branch of the Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence on August 16th of the current year.
Amnesty International continues in the letter by addressing how Haidar Ghorbani’s trial was conducted at the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, writing: Haidar Ghorbani was sentenced to death on February 1st of last year at the Revolutionary Court on the charge of “armed rebellion” against the Islamic Republic.
The letter states that while Haidar Ghorbani was convicted in connection with the killing of three Basij members by forces of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, the court ruling itself stated that Haidar Ghorbani was never armed.
Amnesty International states that this ruling is based on “confessions” extracted from him under torture, where he stated he was only a driver whose car was used by the attackers to commit the murder.
Amnesty International has also emphasized that since his arrest, Haidar Ghorbani has been under pressure in prison to confess, and he himself has stated he was tortured multiple times to make a “confession,” and a video of these “confessions” was produced and broadcast by Press TV.
In this regard, Sharareh Sadeghi, Haidar Ghorbani’s wife, by releasing a video emphasizing that her husband was subjected to “the most severe physical and psychological torture,” has called for international assistance to stop his execution.
Ms. Sadeghi in this video, which was released on September 29th on social media, called the death sentence issued by the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court “arbitrary and unjust” and stated that she and her children are living in the “most bitter and unpleasant” conditions.
Haidar Ghorbani and his brother-in-law Mahmoud Sadeghi, who were residents of one of the villages in Kamyaran in Kurdistan Province, were arrested in September 2016 on charges of “cooperation and assistance in the murder of several Revolutionary Guards members.”
Source: Radio Farda
