Kurdish political prisoner Mohyeddin Ebrahimi’s family visited him today at Orumiyeh Central Prison after they were asked to go to prison for a “final visit” before his execution.
Prison authorities told the family that the political prisoner’s death sentence would be executed in the coming days, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Ebrahimi was sentenced to death on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) in January 2020.
As KHRN, we call on public opinion, human rights organisations and the media to act as quickly as possible to create domestic and international pressure to halt the execution.
On 15 March, Ebrahimi was called to the prison’s security office on the pretext of being sent to court but was transferred to solitary confinement.
Simultaneously, at least five other prisoners sentenced to death on drug-related charges were also taken to solitary cells for execution, but so far no information has been obtained about their identities.
Background
Ebrahimi, 43, who comes from Oshnavieh in West Azerbaijan province, was arrested on 3 November 2017 after he was shot by the intelligence forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in one of the villages of Oshnavieh.
After his arrest, he was taken to the detention centre of the Intelligence Organisation of the IRGC in Orumiyeh, where he was interrogated and severely tortured on the accusation of “membership in a Kurdish opposition party”.
Ebrahimi was tried on 20 August 2018 at Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Sheikhlou.
The defendant was denied the right to a court-appointed lawyer during the trial.
On 23 September 2018, he was officially notified that he had been sentenced to death on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi).
After the political prisoner appealed against the ruling, the case was referred to Branch 19 of the country’s Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court overruled the decision due to a “lack of investigation” and referred it again to the Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh.
In January 2020, the Revolutionary Court sentenced Ebrahimi to death for the second time.
Ebrahimi had been also arrested once in 2010 by security forces on charges of “collaborating with one of the Kurdish opposition parties” and was released from Orumiyeh Central Prison after serving 14 months.
Ebrahimi’s brother Noureddin Ebrahimi was a kolbar, who was shot dead by Iranian border guards in 2017.
