Amnesty: Iran's staggering execution spree kills 1000

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Rashid Kouhi, a 36-year-old Iranian man is scheduled to be executed tomorrow, Saturday, April 8, Amnesty International (AI) reports.

AI, a global human rights network based in the United Kingdom, reports Rashid Kouhi is sentenced to death for drug-related charges. He did not receive a fair trial and has been denied the right to an appeal.

The organization calls upon people to urge Iranian authorities to give Kouhi a chance to appeal his death sentence in a fair trial without recourse to the death penalty. 

In 2015, Iran was the second highest executioner.

Amnesty says continuing the capital punishment "demonstrates the Iranian authorities’ utter disregard for the right to life and their determination to continue with a staggering execution spree that saw nearly 1000 people put to death last year."

According to AI, drug offenses do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes, interpreted by international human rights bodies, as crimes involving international killing, for which the death penalty is permitted under international human rights law."

Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director said, “It is appalling that Rashid Kouhi has been denied the right to an appeal which is a fundamental element of the right to a fair trial. Failing to do so will be an irreversible injustice.”

Last week Amnesty reported that Iran denies a Kurdish political prisoner medical treatment. Twenty-four-year-old Afshin Sohrabzadeh, who is serving a 25-year sentence for Moharebeh (enmity against God) in Iran, suffers from chronic illness and is denied adequate medical care.

In addition, Yousef Kakehmami, an Iranian Kurd already serving a nine-year sentence in Oroumieh Central Prison, was sentenced to five more years for writing a letter to the United Nations (UN).

Taimoor Aliassi, the representative to UN of the Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran-Geneva (KMMK-G), told Kurdistan24, "Despite the current administration pledges to change the government security approach towards the Iranian Kurdistan, the number of indiscriminate killings of Kurdish citizens by the security forces, is dramatically rising." 

Aliassi added that last year, the KMMK-G received reports of 64 cases of government security force’s shooting on Kurdish Kulbar. "According to the information received, at least, 36 border couriers were killed, and 29 other wounded by the government border security forces without respecting even the Iranian domestic law, authorizing the use of lethal force only as a last resort."

Iran continues to spark international outrage for its human rights records.

Reporting by Ava Homa

Editing by Delovan Barwari