The voice of Evin prisoners: “We… unequivocally condemn the death penalty as a form of state-sponsored murder and call for the complete abolition of this inhumane practice”
We had already written about it in January, hoping that the Iranian regime would welcome the international mobilization for the release of the activist Pakhshan Azizi, unjustly detained in Evin prison. The Kurdish activist, already sentenced to 4 years in prison, was sentenced to death by section 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in July 2024 for the crime of “baghi”, armed rebellion against the State. Now the Ninth section of the Iranian Supreme Court rejected the request to review the verdict of guilt and the death sentence towards the humanitarian operator. Pashkhan Azizi’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, said he was shocked by the news and the repetition, in the verdict of the Supreme Court, of same errors detected in the previous process. He also warned that the death sentence could be imminent.
Azizi has been accused of being part of an outlawed Kurdish armed groups operating in Iran’s Kurdistan region. According to Amnesty International, the woman is simply a humanitarian worker, a civil society activist, who provided assistance to women and children in refugee camps in northeastern Syria and northern Iraq, from 2014 to 2022, displaced from territories controlled by the Islamic State since 2014. In Evin prison, according to what several humanitarian associations have reported, she suffered “forced isolation”, as well as “torture and other mistreatment” to force her to plead guilty.
In Iran, over 1,000 executions were carried out in 2024, nearly 75% of all executions in the world. Furthermore, over 20% of those sentenced to death by the Iranian regime were Kurds, like Azizi and the other activist held in prison Varisheh Moradi. The Kurds of Iran have always been a thorn in the side of the regime, since they ask for respect for the rights of minorities and to be able to govern themselves despite participating in the democratic government of the entire country. Mahsa Amini, brutally murdered by the Iranian Morality Police for not wearing the hijab correctly, was a Kurd-iranian as well.
From December 21st to January 19th (Dey month in Iran) at least 113 executions were recorded. In the first three days of the Iranian month of Bahman (20, 21 and 22 January), at least 14 prisoners were hanged, bringing the total number of executions to 774 in the six months since Massoud Pezeshkian, who had presented himself as a moderate, took office. Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the mullahs, is besieged by strong internal economic and social crises. The fear of a popular uprising is getting stronger, so the solution is to intensify repression. The possibility of new protests is putting on alert the regime, that is trying to maintain its grip on power by increasingly resorting to executions as a deterrent, in an atmosphere of fear and terror that is gripping the entire country. Meanwhile, this evening, as the regime celebrates its 46 years of occupation of the country, in Tehran people are shouting “death to the dictator! Death to Khamenei” from the windows, a harsh protest for these years of repression.
On 23 January 2025, the European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding the deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran, highlighting in particular the cases of the activists Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi, also condemning the Islamic Republic’s use of ‘hostage diplomacy’ against European citizens. Nobody knows exactly how many foreigners are in Evin: potential “state hostages” to be exchanged, if necessary.
In points B 1-2 of the declaration, among others, the European Parliament states:
B “Whereas social worker Pakhshan Azizi and women’s rights activist Verisheh (Wrisha) Moradi, both Kurdish activists who fought ISIS in Kurdistan, were sentenced to death for “armed rebellion against the State”; they were denied the right to a fair trial and were subjected to torture and held in solitary confinement; 1. Denounces the Iranian regime’s disproportionate repression of human rights, in particular the persecution of female activists; Strongly deplores the death sentence against Pakhshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi; calls for Iran to immediately and unconditionally release all unjustly detained human rights defenders and political prisoners, including Pakhshan Azizi, Wrisha Moradi and at least 56 other political prisoners on death row; 2. Reiterates its firm opposition to the death penalty and calls on the Iranian Government to introduce an immediate moratorium and abolish the death penalty.”
Meanwhile, a group of 68 political prisoners imprisoned in Evin prison, in Ghezel Hesar prison (Karaj), in Lakan prison (Rasht), in Tehran prison, launch an appeal to the international community: “We…unequivocally condemn the death penalty as a form of state-sponsored murder and call for the complete abolition of this inhumane and reactionary practice. Furthermore, we express our full support to Pakhshan Azizi, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani. We call on the Iranian public and international organizations, especially human rights org., to use all their resources to save the lives of these political prisoners who face imminent execution. We also call for collective efforts to eradicate the death penalty in its entirety.”
We join our voice with theirs, in calling for the liberation of Pakhshan and respect for human rights.
