ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran has sentenced a Kurdish political prisoner to death on charges of membership with a Kurdistan Region-based opposition group and murder of a paramilitary force member, according to a Paris-based Iran human rights monitor – despite earlier assurances from Iranian authorities that he would be immune from punishment.
Shakir Behrooz was sentenced to death by Branch 2 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court on September 10, on charges of “taking up arms against the state” with the Komala Party, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) quoted a source familiar with Behroozi's case as saying.
Behrooz's lawyer "was officially notified of the death sentence today," the source told KHRN on Sunday. He was part of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) in the Kurdistan Region for over eight months, before he left and returned to Iran towards the end of 2018.
Behrooz, who is from Urmia in West Azerbaijan province, "presented himself to the Urmia Intelligence Office in the fall of 2018 when he returned to Iran [from the Kurdistan Region] after receiving an “immunity letter” from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was detained but released after 14 days of interrogation at the Ministry of Intelligence Detention Centre in Urmia," KHRN said.
Arif Walzi, a relative of Behrooz, told Rudaw on Sunday that Iranian authorities in Urmia had "promised" his family that they would not punish him if he chose to return to Iran.
"Before he returned, he one day came up to me and told me that he wanted to return. I advised him not to do it because his case was so sensitive and complicated, and I told him that the regime will attribute other charges against you, but unfortunately he left," said Walzi, a Peshmerga living in the Kurdistan Region.
Behrooz was arrested again in February 2019 by the IRGC’s intelligence special forces, on suspicion of "killing a member of IRGC and interrogated for a year and 18 days in the IRGC al-Mahdi barracks under physical and psychological torture.”, the source added.
The political prisoner was transferred to Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia after 5 months in an IRGC detention centre.
“Shaker Behrooz was initially sentenced to 5 years in prison on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran," another Kurdish opposition group, "but the Security institution later charged him with membership of Komala and the murder of a member of the IRGC”, the source added.
Behrooz made “forced confessions” during interrogation “due to severe mental and physical torture,” the source told KHRN.
The murder charge was made despite “at least 10 people" from Urmia signing a joint testimony that Shaker Behrooz was with them in a shop at the time of the killing, but the court refused to accept the statement.
Confirmation of Behrooz's death sentence comes a day after 27-year-old wrestler Navid Afkari was secretly hanged by Iranian authorities, despite international calls to stay his execution. Amnesty International called Afkari's execution a "travesty of justice".
"Before his secret execution Navid Afkari, 27, was subjected to a shocking catalogue of human rights violations and crimes, including enforced disappearance; torture and other ill-treatment, leading to forced “confessions”; and denial of access to a lawyer and other fair trial guarantees," Amnesty said in a statement released on Saturday.
"Carrying out his death sentence with such utter disregard for the basic principles of justice further demonstrates the cruelty of the death penalty," Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said.
Since the heightening of US-Iran tensions and re-imposition of US sanctions in 2018, Iranian authorities have started tightening the noose on labor activists, journalists, satirists, environmentalists, anti-death penalty campaigners, and researchers, detaining them in droves and sentencing some in trials whose fairness has been questioned.
Tens of thousands of political prisoners are jailed in Iran over various charges, including advocating for democracy and promoting women's or workers' rights. Ethnic minority groups including Kurds and Azeris are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a July 2019 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
Correction: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Shakir Behrooz had been in the Kurdistan Region as a member of the Komala Party for eight months; according to KHRN, he had in fact been a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, not Komala.
Updated at 12:20 pm on September 14, 2020
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