Kurdish Sunni civilian
Detention date: 7 December 2009
Charged with: Spreading corruption on earth and killing a soldier in Mahabad
Sentence: Retribution in kind and the death penalty
Current status: Imprisoned in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj
Kamran Sheikheh, a Kurdish Sunni prisoner, was detained on 7 December 2009 and taken to the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh, where he was interrogated for eight months on the accusation of “enmity against God” (moharebeh).
Sheikheh was then transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran, where he was interrogated in wards 240 and 209 for six months.
The prisoner was eventually transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj on 13 April 2012.
Sheikheh and his co-defendants were first accused of “killing a soldier” and then of “killing Abdul Rahim Tina”, a Sunni cleric.
The hearing of the case was held in March 2016 at Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Moghiseh.
The court charged the civilians with “acting against national security”, “propaganda against the state”, “membership in Salafi groups”, and “spreading corruption on earth” (fasad fil-arz).
The court sentenced Sheikheh and his six co-defendants to the death penalty, which was officially notified to them on 25 May.
The defendants appealed against the verdict and the case was referred to Branch 41 of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Razini. The Supreme Court overruled the verdict in 2017 and referred the case to Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court for retrial.
Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced Kamran Sheikheh and his six co-defendants to the death penalty in June 2018 on charges of “spreading corruption on earth”.
This time, the ruling was upheld by Branch 41 of the Supreme Court due to pressures from the office of the intelligence ministry in Orumiyeh and it was officially notified to their lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai on 3 February 2020.
On 19 September 2017, Sheikheh and two of his co-defendants, Anwar Khezri and Khosrow Besharat, were transferred from Rajai Shahr Prison to Orumiyeh Central Prison for a court hearing.
The hearing was held on 30 July 2018 at Branch 12 of the Court of Appeals of Orumiyeh, which sentenced Sheikheh to “retribution in kind” (qisas) on charges of “premeditated murder”.
After being transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison on 19 September 2017, Sheikheh and his co-defendants went on a hunger strike for six days to protest against their imprisonment in a ward for ordinary crimes.
They eventually ended their hunger strike with the favourable promise of the prison officials to transfer them to the ward for political prisoners.
While he and his co-defendants had been previously informed that they would be transferred to Mahabad Prison for trial, they were transferred to the detention centre of the office of the intelligence ministry in Shapour in Tehran on 22 April 2019 and returned to Rajai Shahr Prison three days later.
