Lawyers call on Iran to stop execution of Kurdish man as date nears

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The lawyer of Kurdish death row prisoner said a group of lawyers, including himself, had signed a letter to the President of Iran to stop the execution of the “innocent” man.

Amid fears of Ramin Hossein Panahi being on the verge of execution, “60 lawyers of Persian and Kurdish ethnicities quickly wrote a letter to the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, also the head of Supreme National Security Council,” Hossein Ahmadi Niyaz, Panahi’s lawyer, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.

Describing Panahi’s arrest as “illegal,” Niyaz, asserted that there were hidden hands that pushed for his client’s death sentence.

Panahi was sentenced to death in January by an Iranian court in Sanandaj (Sina) for “taking up arms against the state.”

His conviction was based on claims that he is a member of the armed Kurdish opposition group Komala, but no evidence was presented that would link him to crimes he was charged with, which included murder.

In April, Iran’s Supreme Court approved the sentence.

“Ramin is truly an innocent boy, with his only alleged crime being a member in Komala,” Niyaz said of his client.

“We hope the president will immediately stop the execution to save an innocent life,” he added.

Niyaz stated that so far, they had written to the Supreme Leader, the President, and the head of the Supreme Court of Iran “unfortunately, however, we’ve not received any positive responses.”

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), an opposition faction in Turkey, on Tuesday also urged the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately stop the imminent execution through a letter they penned to Iran’s ambassador to Turkey.

Two weeks ago, activists protested in front of the UN compound in Erbil, calling for increased pressure on Iran to halt the execution of the Kurdish prisoner.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany