US Envoy Decries Death Sentences Against Kurdish Iranian Political Prisoners

The US Office of the Special Envoy for Iran has condemned death sentences handed down recently against four Kurdish Iranian men, and urged the country’s authorities to “repress their own people.”

On January 6, the Norway-based human rights organization Hengaw reported that the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences for the four political prisoners aged in their 20s.

Mohsen Mazloum, Pezhman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar and Mohammad (Hajir) Faramarzi had been sentenced in the first instance by the Tehran Revolutionary Court for allegedly collaborating with Israel, it said.

“The Iranian regime continues to use false accusations, forced confessions, and unfair trials to silence political opponents and peaceful protestors,” US Deputy Special Envoy for Iran Abram Paley said on the social media network X.

“We call on Iranian authorities to release all unjustly detained political prisoners and stop repressing their own people,” he wrote.

We condemn the death sentences handed to four Kurdish-Iranian citizens this week - Mohsen Mazloum, Pezhman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar, and Mohammad (Hajir) Faramarzi. The Iranian regime continues to use false accusations, forced confessions, and unfair trials to silence political…

— Office of the Special Envoy for Iran (@USEnvoyIran) January 11, 2024

The four Kurdish convicts, who are members of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, were arrested in West Azerbaijan Province in July 2022 “while trying to carry out an explosion in Isfahan's industrial facilities," state media reported the following month.

The party called the claims baseless, saying that "such a scenario has been proposed to suppress more people and protesters."

Hengaw cited sources close to their families as saying that their relatives have had no information about their fate or whereabouts and no face-to-face meetings or phone calls with them since their arrest, while their lawyer has not been able to study the case.

State TV has broadcast the forced confession of the accused at least twice, the group added, while their families faced threats from government institutions.

The rate of executions in Iran has been rising sharply in the wake of nationwide protests triggered by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while she was in police custody for an alleged hijab violation.

The Iran Human Rights group said in November that the Islamic Republic had executed more than 700 people in 2023, the highest figure in eight years.

Amnesty International says the regime in Tehran executed more people than any other country in the world other than China last year.

Ethnic minorities in Iran, including Kurds, face widespread discrimination in law and practice and are disproportionately affected by death sentences imposed for vague charges, according to the London-based human rights organization.