The “Week in brief” by Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) is a weekly review of the most important human rights news and developments from and about Iran’s Kurdish areas.
Iran affirms death penalty for Kurdish political prisoners
An Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court has affirmed death sentences of two Kurdish political prisoners charged with “enmity against God”.
The death sentences were issued after the two prisoners spent years of uncertainty behind bars.
The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced Kurdish political prisoner Saber Sheikh Abdullah and Diako Rasulzadeh on charged of Moharebeh (enmity against God) for alleged membership in the outlawed Kurdish Komala Party, a reliable source told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
However, the court invalidated a death penalty sentence for another prisoner, Hossein Osmani, who was sentenced at he same court.
The three prisoners were tortured and forced to make confessions on state-run TV admitting to part in alleged plans for the 2010 Mahabad bomb attack.
They were denied t lawyers represent them at the trials.
Iranian government officials have given conflicting statements statements about perpetrators behind the Mahabad bomb attack.
Four prisoners hanged in Iran’s Orumiyeh
Four prisoners have been hanged on drug-related charges at Iran’s Orumiyeh Central Prison.
The four were taken to solitary confinement cells of the prison a day before their execution.
KHRN sources have said that the executed were Hassan Bashooki, Asqar Ranjbar, Hedayat Shirzad and Alireza Zarei.
Each of the prisoners had spent several years in prison before their execution.
Read More: http://kurdistanhumanrights.net/en/orumiyeh-four-prisoners-hanged-on-drug-related-charges/
Iran forces open fire injuring Kurdish Kolbar
Iranian forces at the Bessortha checkpoint of the Oshnavieh area opened fire injuring a civilian Kurdish Kolbar before detaining him, local sources said.
The injured Kolbar, Mohiuddin Ebrahimi, who is a former political prisoner, was shot three times. He had taken up the Kolbar job because of his dire financial issues as a result of long-term unemployment in his hometown of Oshnavieh (Shno in Kurdish).
He was taken to a hospital while handcuffed before his transfer to the Orumiyeh Central Prison.
Iranian security forces arrested Ebrahimi in 2010 on charges of “cooperation” with an outlawed political organisation, for which he spent 11 months behind bars at Orumiyeh Central Prison.
His brother, Nour Al-Din, who has worked as a Kolbar, was shot dead by Iranian forces in May 2017.