Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Kurdish prisoners of conscience Anvar Khezri, Kamran Sheikheh and Khosrow Besharat face imminent execution in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province, following the execution of four of their co-defendants in recent months on charges of “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz).

The three death row prisoners who have been imprisoned for 14 years, have been on hunger strike since 3 January following the execution of their co-defendant Davoud Abdollahi and the threat of their own imminent execution.

Most recently, their co-defendant Farhad Salimi, a 43-year-old Sunni Kurdish cleric, was executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj after 14 years behind bars.

Salimi, who also went on hunger strike on 3 January, was executed on 23 January, the twentieth day of his hunger strike, without prior notice or the opportunity for a final meeting with his family.

An image circulated on social media shows visible signs of beatings and abuse on his body prior to his execution.

Before Salimi, three of his co-defendants, Ghassem Abasteh, Ayoub Karimi and Davoud Abdollahi, in were executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 5 November, 29 November and 2 January respectively, despite the efforts of their families and the opposition of human rights organisations.

All seven prisoners of conscience were arrested by security forces in Saqqez, Kurdistan province, and Mahabad, West Azerbaijan province, between December 2009 and January 2010.

They were then taken to the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, where they were subjected to physical and psychological torture for several months in order to extract forced “confessions”.

After the interrogation phase in Orumiyeh, the seven prisoners of conscience were moved to Evin Prison in Tehran, where they endured six months of solitary confinement and further questioning in Wards 240 and 209.

They were later transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on 20 March 2012.

In March 2016, the trial of these seven prisoners on charges such as “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the state”, “membership in Salafi groups”, and “spreading corruption on earth” was held in Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Moghiseh.

On 25 May 2016, they were officially informed of the death sentence. After the lawyer objected to the issued verdict, the case was referred to the Supreme Court. In Early 2017, this verdict was overturned.

After the referral of this case to Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Salavati, in June 2018, these seven prisoners were again sentenced to death on charges of “spreading corruption on earth.”

Following the lawyer’s objection to the issued verdict, the case was referred to Branch 41 of the Supreme Court, and in February 2020, this verdict was upheld.

After the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of these prisoners of conscience, on 9 September 2020, Branch 38 of the Supreme Court rejected the plea for retrial submitted by these prisoners.

At least four of these prisoners have, in recent years, revealed their torture experiences during interrogations at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre through open letters.

In February 2021, Khosrow Besharat wrote: “It was in January 2010 when I was arrested by the intelligence forces in Mahabad and immediately transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh. They subjected me to various forms of torture for a full month in solitary confinement. Often, from midnight until morning, terrifying noises, cries, and screams of someone being tortured filled the air, instilling fear and trembling throughout my body. I could not sleep until morning due to the fear, and this greatly distressed and mentally tortured me. They often tied my hands tightly from behind, causing me to moan in pain. Many times, they hung me from the ceiling for hours with handcuffs, and at other times, they restrained me on a bed, strongly hitting the soles of my feet with electric cables, almost causing my brain to come out of my mouth, and my eyes to detach from their sockets, while my heart felt like it was about to burst.”

In a subsequent part of the letter, he continued: “These tortures continued for three weeks, after which they threatened to arrest my family members. During these tortures and threats, the interrogator wrote down the charges against me, and in that state, I was forced to sign and leave my fingerprints on the same paper. At that time, it felt like I did not exist in this world, and I did not know what I was signing.”

Anvar Khezri also wrote an open letter from Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj in February 2019. After 56 days of torture, including repeated beatings to the head, chest, and soles of his feet in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh, which he referred to as the “torture centre” of the Ministry of Intelligence, he attempted suicide.

Khezri wrote: “On the 57th day of my detention, I underwent surgery in the hospital performed by Dr. Tolouei. Upon regaining consciousness, I was transferred to the torture centre without the doctor’s permission. Through renewed torture, threats, exploiting physical weakness, the effects of anaesthesia, and the psychological crisis after surgery that takes the victim out of a normal state, and threatening to kill my family in a fake accident, they coerced me into finger-signing papers, the contents of which I did not even know. They then took me in front of a hidden camera, directing a scripted and pre-planned deceitful scenario. This film, full of lies, was directed in a way that any sensible person, upon a single viewing, would realize its falsehood and fabrication. It was broadcast through the criminal and deceitful Press TV network, which operates beyond borders and serves the dirty policies of the Ministry of Intelligence, even before any court proceedings.”

In July 2019, Anvar Khezri, Kamran Sheikheh and Khosrow Besharat were tried in a separate case by the Orumiyeh Court of Appeals on charges of “premeditated murder” of a Sunni clergyman named Abdolrahim Tina.

According to the issued verdicts communicated to these prisoners in July 2020, Khezri and Besharat were sentenced to 10 years in prison each on charges of “participation in murder”, while Sheikheh was sentenced to death for “premeditated murder.”

In August 2023, the seven prisoners were transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison after the closure and evacuation of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. Later, on 5 November, Ghassem Abasteh was executed on charges of “spreading corruption on earth”.