Amnesty International issued a statement calling for immediate action to halt Heidar Ghorbani’s death sentence, saying the Kurd political prisoner had been forced to confess under severe pressure and torture.
Heidar Ghorbani has been accused by the judiciary of being involved in the murder of three Basijis in the clashes that took place in September 2016.
Prior to the trial of this defendant, Press TV, an English-language state-run news outlet of the Islamic Republic, broadcasted a video of the political prisoner’s coerced confessions which provided grounds for the trial and the issuance of the death sentence.
Mr. Ghorbani has repeatedly stated that the only evidence in the case for the death sentence is the same confessions under torture. Even the indictment issued by the prosecutor’s office and finally the verdict of the court stated that the accused was not armed.
Heidar Ghorbani is from one of the villages of Kamyaran in Kurdistan province. In a documentary about the political prisoner, the Islamic Republic National Television said that the father of the prisoner had been killed 40 years ago in the Kurdistan conflict. It is not clear what the killing of his father has to do with the case of this Kurd political prisoner.
In its letter, Amnesty International called for the immediate abolition of the death sentence of this political prisoner and for a fair trial. According to reports, this prisoner is in serious danger of execution.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which holds a monopoly over TV and radio broadcasts, has been actively involved in the systematic production and broadcast of forced confessions, the theft of private data, and the publication of defamatory content. The IRIB, in collaboration with the security apparatus of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has become a means of mass suppression and prepares grounds for Iran’s judiciary to execute activists without evidence of any crime commited.
Source » iranbriefing