The Chief Justice of the western Kurdistan province has rejected the appeal for retrial of the Kurdish political prisoner Heydar Ghorbani, raising fears of his execution.

After the rejection of the appeal, the case was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kamyaran, Kurdistan province. The prisoner’s family are concerned about the possibility the prosecutor could order his imminent execution.

In February 2020, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj – presided over by Judge Saeidi – sentenced Heydar Ghorbani to death on charges of “armed insurrection” through “membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI)”.

On 5 August 2020, Branch 27 of the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, and a month later, rejected the prisoner’s appeal for a retrial.

Ghorbani is currently being held in the political ward of Sanandaj Central Prison.

On 15 December 2020, the prisoner’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that 50 religious scholars and imams in Kurdistan province appealed for the application of Article 477 of the Iranian Islamic Criminal Procedure Code, which would see the judicial review of Ghorbani’s case.

“Fortunately, the appeal was referred from Tehran to the General Court of Kurdistan province, and the Chief Justice of the province is in charge of reviewing the appeal”, he told the ILNA at the time.

However, the General Court of Kurdistan province recently informed the prisoner’s family that the appeal was rejected and that the case was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kamyaran for execution, a source told the KHRN.

According to the source, due to the rejection of the request, concerns about the possibility of the execution of Ghorbani’s death sentence have increased.

Reportedly, the political prisoner’s lawyer is preparing to send a letter to the new head of the judiciary in the coming days.

Additionally, a group of Sunni clerics have also requested the pardon of the political prisoner in a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei.

Explaining the sentence given to Heydar Ghorbani, the lawyer also said: “In addition to being sentenced to 30 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder, Heydar Ghorbani has been sentenced to death for armed insurrection. While the condition for the charge of armed insurrection, according to Muslim jurists, is that firstly he should be a member of a rebel group and secondly he should have used a weapon, my client neither has accepted the charges of membership in Kurdish parties nor personally took up arms. Therefore, he cannot be charged with armed insurrection.”

Security forces had arrested Heydar Ghorbani, a resident of Kamyaran, in October 2016. They interrogated and tortured him for several months in the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj to make forced confessions.

In March 2018, Iranian state-owned Press TV published the forced confessions.

Additionally, on 7 October 2019, Branch 1 of the Criminal Court of Sanandaj had sentenced Ghorbani to 90 years in prison and 200 lashes.