HDP joins calls on Iran to stop Kurdish prisoner's execution

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), an opposition faction in Turkey, on Tuesday urged the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately stop the imminent execution of Kurdish prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi.

In a letter penned to Iran’s ambassador Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian Fard, HDP Co-leaders Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli said Panahi's detention and trial process was “carried out far from the basic principles of the international law.”

“On behalf of millions of Kurds and democrats who voted for HDP, Buldan and Temeli called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to reverse the death penalty for Panahi in no time, stating the [need] for an appropriate fair trial process based on universal legal standards,” a statement on the HDP website read.

“Buldan and Temelli also asked the Islamic Republic to heed calls not to execute Panahi,” it added.

Panahi was wounded last year by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during a clash with the Komala, an armed Kurdish opposition group.

He was subsequently placed in custody and held in solitary confinement until January this year.

His family received no information about his fate or whereabouts for four months following his arrest.

His attorney Hossein Ahmadi Niaz told Kurdistan 24 Tuesday that he and five other lawyers had also sent letters to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, pleading to stop the execution.

Niaz said officials were to allow Panahi’s father to see his son one last time, a sign that the execution could be carried out soon.

United Nations rapporteurs, Amnesty International, and other human rights organizations, as well as Kurdish groups, have urged Iran not to implement the capital punishment on Panahi.

UN officials voiced “serious concerns” in an April statement that Panahi did not receive a fair trial and was mistreated and tortured in detention.

“Executing Mr. Panahi, following his torture, and unfair trial and on the basis of charges that do not meet international standards for the use of death penalty, would be unconscionable,” the experts Agnes Callamard, Dainius Puras, and Nils Melzer said in a joint statement released in Geneva.

Iran, along with Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and China, is one of the top countries that execute political prisoners.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany