A group of political and civil rights activists have issued a statement condemning the death sentence handed down to Kurdish political prisoner Verisheh Moradi (Wirishe Moradi) and urging action against state executions in Iran.
They have called on all those opposed to the death penalty, regardless of political affiliation, to take action against such inhumane sentences and to ensure that these state executions do not go unnoticed.
Moradi, who was arrested in August 2023, now faces imminent execution after an Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced her to death on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi), which carries the death penalty in Iran.
Activists claim the ruling violates Iranian law, arguing that under Article 288 of the Islamic Penal Code, she should have received a prison term instead.
The full text of the statement is as follows:
One and a half year after the arrest of Verisheh Moradi (Wirishe Moradi), a Kurdish fighter who fought in Kobani and Rojava, now faces the death penalty. At any moment, this sentence could be upheld by the Supreme Court and executed.
Moradi spent years working as a Kung Fu instructor for underprivileged children and as a civil rights activist focusing on women’s and student issues in Sanandaj. In 2010, she moved to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where she continued her social activities with the East Kurdistan Free Women Society (KJAR), engaging in sociological research, education, and networking with women’s movements across the Middle East. When ISIS launched its attacks, sparking war in northern Iraq (Shingal/Sinjar) and northern and eastern Syria (Rojava), she joined the Kurdish forces in 2014 to fight against ISIS in Rojava. She was wounded while defending the city of Kobani.
A woman from eastern Kurdistan who joined the struggle against ISIS in the hope of liberating women, Moradi played a significant role in the bloody battle for Kobani. Severely injured during the war, she later dedicated herself to empowering and educating women in the Kurdish regions of Syria after the liberation of Kobani.
Following years of activism in Rojava and after sustaining injuries in Kobani, she returned to northern Iraq for medical treatment, and later travelled to Iran to continue her social work. On 1 August 2023, she was arrested by security forces despite carrying no weapons. She was held in solitary confinement for five months and subjected to physical and psychological pressure. She was subsequently tried in the counter-revolutionary court of injustice by Judge Salavati, who sentenced her to death on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) without allowing her or her lawyers the right to defend her case.
During a court session on 4 August, Moradi refused to attend in protest against the unjust sentences handed down to Pakhshan Azizi and Sharifeh Mohammadi. Instead, she wrote her defence statement for the public, declaring: “ISIS beheaded us, and the Islamic Republic hangs us.”
Moradi’s death sentence was issued despite the fact that, in her final hearing at Branch 5 of Evin’s Prosecutor’s Office, she had been charged with armed insurrection under Article 288 of the Islamic Penal Code. According to this article, individuals arrested before engaging in armed conflict should receive a lesser sentence: “If members of a rebellious group are arrested before any armed confrontation, and the organisation and its leadership remain intact, they shall be sentenced to third-degree imprisonment. If the organisation and leadership have disbanded, they shall receive a fifth-degree prison sentence.” However, Judge Salavati disregarded this and, in a legally and procedurally flawed move, reclassified her charge under Article 287 based on his personal judgement, sentencing her to death.
We, the undersigned, strongly condemn all death sentences and firmly believe that execution, in any circumstance, constitutes state-sanctioned murder. We declare that this ruling is not only a sentence against Moradi but also an attack on all women in society and in Kurdistan—women who, for the past century, have been at the forefront of the struggle against oppression and fascism and have repeatedly fallen victim to authoritarian regimes.
Furthermore, we denounce the death sentences issued against Pakhshan Azizi, Sharifeh Mohammadi, and more than 50 other political and religious prisoners, as well as the thousands of individuals sentenced to death for drug-related offences. We call on all those who oppose capital punishment—regardless of political affiliation—to resist these inhumane sentences by any means possible, and we ask them to do everything they can to prevent these government murders from going unnoticed, because the abolition of the death penalty requires solidarity and unity across all segments of society.
