KHRP has today written to the UN to call on them to urge Iran to stop the impending executions of Ms Zeyneb Jalalyian and fifteen other political prisoners convicted of ‘mobarabeh’ (‘enmity against God’).

KHRP had already expressed its concerns at the detention, treatment, trial and imminently feared execution of several Kurdish political prisoners, including Ms Jalalyian, in May. She is one of many activists who KHRP believes has been targeted by the Iranian Authorities because of her Kurdish ethnicity and suspected political activism. She was arrested in 2008 after reportedly writing and creating posters for the Kurdish nationalist group, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), with whom she was alleged to have ties. Ms. Jalalyian was held incommunicado in a Ministry of Detention facility for eight months before being sentenced to death by the Kermanshah Revolutionary Court. During her brief trial — said to last only a few minutes — she was barred from access to her lawyer and was told to  ‘shut up’ by the sentencing judge after making a plea to say goodbye to her family.

The latest cases continue after five Kurdish activists — four men, Ferzad Kemanger, Eli Heyderiyan, Ferhad Wekili and Mehdi Eslamian, and a woman, Şîrîn Elemhulî — were executed at Evin prison in Tehran on Sunday 9 May. The execution of Mr Kermanger came despite urgent action appeals sent by KHRP to various UN Special Rapporteurs in December 2008, and again in July 2009.

“KHRP opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and remains gravely concerned about Iran’s appalling record of executing Kurdish prisoners”, said KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yildiz. “KHRP urgently calls on the UN to intervene on behalf of Ms. Jalalyian and others on death row, and for the Iranian authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the defendants’ access to legal counsel and their ability to have a ‘fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal’ as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a signatory.”