Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Prisoner Vahid Vahdani was executed for drug-related offences in Birjand Central Prison in South Khorasan Province on 23 July. Vahdani, a 30-year-old man from Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province, had been arrested several years ago and sentenced to death for drug trafficking. He was executed along with six other prisoners in the early hours of 23 July.

Kurdish prisoner of conscience Kamran Sheikheh was executed this morning in Orumiyeh Central Prison in West Azerbaijan Province after 14 years in prison, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned. Sheikheh had been sentenced to death alongside six other Kurdish prisoners of conscience – Ghassem Abasteh, Ayoub Karimi, Davoud Abdollahi, Farhad Salimi, Anvar Khezri, and Khosrow Besharat – on charges of “spreading corruption on…

Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish activist who has been detained for almost a year, has been sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that following the verdict, women political prisoners in Evin Prison staged a sit-in protest in the prison…

Hassan Amini, brother of Mohammad Amini, a protester killed during the Women, Life, Freedom anti-government uprising in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, has been imprisoned in Sanandaj Central Prison to serve a six month and 15 day sentence. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Amini was arrested after being summoned to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Sanandaj on 21 July. He was convicted…

Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish activist charges with “armed insurrection” (baghi), has been denied the right to contact or visit her family for two weeks while held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned. Azizi, a social work graduate from Tehran’s Allameh Tabataba’i University, has been denied these rights since 6 July by order of the prison’s disciplinary council. She was informed…

Over the past two weeks, a bedbug infestation in the women’s ward of the Juvenile Detention Centre of Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, has led to protests by inmates, but the prison authorities have yet to respond. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that 56 prisoners are currently being held in four rooms in the women’s section of the facility. There have been reports of poor…

Osman Delsouz, 66, and Hazhar Delsouz, 30, residents of Zivakeh village in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, were sent to Naqadeh Prison on 13 July to begin serving their two-year prison sentences. The duo were convicted in May by Branch 102 of Piranshahr Second Criminal Court on charges of “acting against national security” through membership of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). On 5 July 2002,…

Authorities at Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, Fars Province, executed Mojtaba Karami, a 28-year-old prisoner from Harsin, Kermanshah province, on drug-related charges on 7 July. Karami was arrested about three and a half years ago and sentenced to death for drug trafficking. His funeral is scheduled to take place on 9 July in his home town of Harsin.

Verisheh Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner in Tehran’s Evin Prison, has been prevented from contacting her family and lawyers since 6 May on the orders of Judge Abolghasem Salavati. When her lawyers went to court last week ahead of her second hearing, they were told by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran that they would not be allowed to access the case…