Amnesty urges Iran to halt imminent execution of 22-year-old Kurdish man

Amnesty International urged Iran to cancel the death sentence of 22-year-old Kurdish man Ramin Hossein Panahi, scheduled to be executed on Thursday. The internatoinal human rights group charged that he received an unfair trial and was the likely the victim of torture at the hands of the Iranian government.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Amnesty International urged Iran to cancel the death sentence of 22-year-old Kurdish man Ramin Hossein Panahi, scheduled to be executed on Thursday. The internatoinal human rights group charged that he received an unfair trial and was the likely the victim of torture at the hands of the Iranian government.

Panahi was sentenced to death in January 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 named, which included murder.

The sentence came after ‘a grossly unfair trial and amid serious torture allegations,’ said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Ramin Hossein Panahi’s case has been a breathtaking miscarriage of justice from start to finish. After appearing at his trial reportedly bearing torture marks on his body he was convicted in less than an hour,” Luther added.

The rights group also criticizes Iran for denying basic rights of due process to the Kurdish activist during the trial.

“During the investigation period, he was denied access to both his lawyer and his family, as well as to any details of the evidence against him. In a complete mockery of the judicial process, intelligence officials also repeatedly pressured him to make a televised ‘confession’ in exchange for the quashing of his death sentence. His refusal to submit to this pressure has seen him languishing in solitary confinement.”

In recent years, Iran is one of the top countries for carrying out the death penalty on its citizens. Of the 993 people executed globally in 2017, 507 of them were in Iran, according to Amnesty.

“We urge the Iranian authorities not to compound this shocking catalogue of human rights violations by proceeding with what is the ultimate and irreversible denial of human rights," Luther stated. "Ramin Hossein Panahi’s death sentence must be quashed now before it’s too late.”

Editing by John J. Catherine