Kurdish activist found dead near Iranian border of Kurdistan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An Iranian Kurdish human rights and political activist was found dead in the Kurdistan Region's province of Sulaimani late Tuesday night, a human rights group said.

Iqbal Muradi was one of the leading members of Kurdistan Human Rights Group (KMMK) and father of Zanyar Muradi, a political prisoner in Iran that has been sentenced to death by hanging.

According to a KMMK statement, Muradi was killed following a “terrorist act” in the city of Penjwen, after which his body was found at 23:30 local time showing "signs of seven bullets."

Muradi, a former political activist who participated in several Kurdish revolutions, is also an uncle of Luqman Muradi, another Kurdish prisoner in Iran that has been given a death sentence.

Previously in 2008, Muradi was injured in a similar attack, also in Penjwen, but survived after being taken to a nearby hospital.

The KMMK harshly condemned the act and expressed condolences to his family. The Kurdish rights group also called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to find the perpetrators and bring them before a court to face justice.

Over the past two years, multiple Iranian opposition leaders have been targeted in the Kurdistan Region, with most of their parties accusing Tehran of being behind such acts.

On March 7, Qadir Qadiri, a senior Kurdish Peshmerga Commander of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iran was killed in Sulaimani’s Rania city.

“He was shot 20 times outside of his car,” said a statement, adding that he was “assassinated” by "Iran and its mercenaries."

The week before, an explosion in Erbil’s sub-district of Binaslawa killed one man and wounded his father, both of them members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), another Iranian Kurdish opposition party.

Editing by John J. Catherine