Three Kurdish political prisoners executed in Iran
According to the Iranian Human Rights Organization, three Kurdish political prisoners, Ramin Hossein Panahi, Loghman Moradi, and Zaniar Moradi, were executed in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj.
The Iranian Human Rights Organization has condemned the execution of these three Kurdish political prisoners. Mahmoud Amiri Moghadam, the organization’s spokesman, said in this regard: “Zaniar Moradi, Loghman Moradi, and Ramin Hossein Panahi were tortured during their detention to extract confessions that have no legal basis and were sentenced to death in an unfair trial. Their execution is a crime and the Iranian authorities, including the leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, are responsible for this crime.”
The Iranian Human Rights Organization had previously warned of the imminent risk of execution of these three prisoners. Also, yesterday, Javed Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, and Agnes Callamard, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Executions, called on the authorities of the Islamic Republic to stop the imminent execution of Iranian Kurdish prisoners, including Zanyar Moradi, Loghman Moradi, and Ramin Hossein Panahi.
Following the execution of these three prisoners, Amjad Hossein Panahi, brother of Ramin Hossein Panahi, said in an interview with Kurdish journalists in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, that Ramin's body had not even been handed over to his family.
Philip Luther, researcher and director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Amnesty International, also called the news of the death sentences horrifying in a statement reacting to these executions, despite widespread condemnation of the death sentences against these individuals and numerous calls by UN experts and other activists to halt the executions.
The Amnesty International statement also states that the trial of the three was grossly unfair, that they were denied access to their lawyers after their arrest and that they were tortured to extract confessions.
In this statement, Amnesty International called on the authorities of the Islamic Republic to take immediate steps to ensure fair trials, prohibit torture, and abolish the death penalty, in accordance with Iran's international obligations.
Hossein Ahmadi-Niaz, Ramin Hossein Panahi's defense lawyer, called the execution of Ramin's death sentence illegal in an interview with the Persian service of the Voice of America.
Saleh Nikbakht, the lawyer for Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, also told VOA that he went to Rajai Shahr Prison on Friday night, but prison officials told him that no sentence related to these prisoners would be executed there and that the two prisoners and their files had been handed over to intelligence officials. This was despite the news of their execution being released on Saturday.
Zaniar Moradi and Loghman Moradi were arrested in Marivan by the Sanandaj Ministry of Intelligence in August 2009. After a few months, these two young prisoners were transferred to Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, and in a short trial, they were tried on charges of “combating war through actions against national security, membership in the Komala Party, assassinating the son of the Friday prayer imam of Marivan, spying for England, and disrupting security during Mr. Khamenei’s presence in Marivan,” and sentenced to public execution.
According to a statement by Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, issued in March 2012, “Zanyar and Loghman Moradi were forced to accept and confess to the murder charge after being severely beaten and threatened with sexual assault.” The statement added: “No evidence or witnesses were presented against the two men in court and they did not have proper access to their legal counsel.”
Ramin Hossein Panahi was also shot and wounded by IRGC forces in Sanandaj on Friday, July 2, 2017, and then arrested. IRGC agents claimed that he had engaged in an armed conflict with them, but the prisoner's family denies the incident. Ramin was sentenced to death in a few minutes of trial on charges of "acting against national security and being a member of Komala," and his death sentence was confirmed on Tuesday, April 11, by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court.
Source: Voice of America
