Civilian from Oshnavieh
Detention date: 3 August 2016
Charged with: Armed insurrection
Sentence: Death penalty
Status: Executed on 10 May 2020
Hedayat Abdollahpour, a 26-year-old mechanic, was detained on 3 August 2016 by forces of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Oshnavieh, following 50 days of bloody clashes between the IRGC and the Peshmarga forces of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) in Qarah Soqol village of Oshnavieh.
Six other civilians from Oshnavieh named Rasoul Azizi, Mohammad Zaher Faramarzi, Jalal Masrouri, Kamal Masrouri, Seddiq Baekram, and Yaqub Baekram had been detained before Abdollahpour by the IRGC intelligence forces on 19 June.
Abdollahpour was subjected to severe torture, including torture with “electric shock”, “flogging the soles of the feet with cable”, and “hanging”, for two months in the detention centre of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh in order to make forced confessions to false accusations. He was then transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
On 17 January 2017, a court hearing was held for Abdollahpour and the other six defendants in Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Chabok, on charges of “armed insurrection” and “membership of the KDPI”.
On 24 January, the verdict was officially announced to their lawyer. According to the verdict, Abdollahpour was sentenced to the death penalty while Rasoul Azizi was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Mohammad Zaher Faramarzi to 25 years in prison, Jalal Masrouri to 15 years in prison, Kamal Masrouri to 10 years in prison, Seddiq Baekram to 10 years in prison, and Yaghoub Baekram to 15 years in prison.
After the lawyers of the case appealed against the ruling, it was referred to Branch 47 of the Supreme Court of Iran. The verdict was overruled by the Supreme Court, and the case was referred to another court branch in Orumiyeh for retrial.
After referring Abdollahpour’s case to Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, the court hearing was held on 10 December 2018 on the charges of “armed insurrection”. This court, too, sentenced the prisoner to the death penalty.
An informed source regarding Abdollahpour’s case had previously spoken to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) and said: “The only proof for the accusation of armed insurrection and membership in a Kurdish party is that these citizens gave food to the Kurdish Peshmarga forces when they were in the village of Qarah Soqol, and this action is considered as membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and all seven Kurdish civilians have been sentenced to heavy sentences based only on this accusation.”
Abdollahpour was executed in Orumiyeh Central Prison on 10 May 2020.
