Kurdistan Human Rights Network

A group of civil, human rights, political and media activists from Kurdistan have issued a statement calling for the immediate annulment of the death sentence imposed on Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi and a review of her case. The signatories also demanded review of the cases of other death row prisoners in the country. The statement, entitled “Respect the Right to Life”, highlighted the widespread concern...

Prisoner Farman Afristam, a prisoner sentenced to death for “premeditated murder”, was executed in the early hours of 7 January in Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province. Afristam, a father of two from of the village of Milkeh-ye Shir Khan in Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province, was arrested four years ago on murder charges. Earlier, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported on the execution of three...

Two Kurdish women, Kosar Darabi and Zahra Shahbazi, have been killed by their husbands in Kermanshah and Ilam, respectively, within the past week. Darabi, an 18-year-old woman from Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province, was shot dead by her husband on 1 January. She had reportedly been forced into marriage about two months earlier and had been severely beaten by her husband before the killing, leaving visible bruises on...

Branch 39 of Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence issued against Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi. Azizi's lawyer, Amir Raeisian, informed Sharq Daily of the decision today and criticised the court for ignoring critical evidence. "After Branch 26 of the [Islamic] Revolutionary Court of Tehran issued a death sentence against Ms Pakhshan Azizi, we filed an appeal. However, Branch 39 of the Supreme Court...

Security forces today arrested former Kurdish political prisoner Afshin Hossein-Panahi in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned. He was arrested without a warrant at his workplace and security agents then raided and searched his home in Sanandaj. Hossein-Panahi is the brother of Ramin Hossein-Panahi, a Kurdish political prisoner who was executed in 2018. The former political prisoner was reportedly summoned by telephone...