Kurdish political prisoners Pezhman Fatehi, Mohsen Mazloum, Mohammad Faramarzi and Vafa Azarbar are at imminent risk of execution after the Supreme Court approved their death sentences.
These members of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan were sentenced to death about two months ago in an unfair trial in Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “spying for Israel”, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned.
Following an appeal by their defence lawyer, the case was referred to Branch 9 of the Supreme Court, where the death sentences were recently confirmed and the execution order sent to the Enforcement of Judgements Office of the Tehran Court.
Faramarzi, 28, from Dehgolan, Kurdistan Province; Mazloum, 27, from Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province; Azarbar, 26, from Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province; and Fatehi, 28, from Kamyaran, Kurdistan Province, were arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence on 22 June 2023 in a village in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
Since their arrest, they have been denied family visits and access to a designated lawyer, and even their place of detention remains unknown.
The security services of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in line with their routine, twice broadcast on state television forced confessions of these four political prisoners with repeated fictitious scenarios, alleging links with the Israeli secret service Mossad.
The programme claimed that the Komala members had been arrested in Isfahan, Isfahan Province, contradicting the family’s statement to KHRN that “contrary to the Ministry of Intelligence’s claims, these individuals were only sent to Orumiyeh for organisational and political activities and did not carry any weapons”.
According to the family member interviewed by KHRN, the families of these individuals have repeatedly sought information about their situation from security agencies and courts in Orumiyeh, Bukan and Tehran in recent years, but the authorities have failed to provide clear answers.