Iran has executed a Kurdish man convicted of armed rebellion despite international appeals that his life be spared, activists said on December 20.
Heidar Ghorbani was executed early on December 19 in Sanandaj prison in western Iran’s Kurdistan Province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said, adding that neither his family nor his lawyer had been given prior warning.
Ghorbani’s execution was carried out while his case was still under consideration at the Supreme Court.
UN human rights experts had voiced “serious concerns” that Ghorbani did not receive a fair trial and said he was tortured during pretrial detention. Rights group considered him to be a political prisoner.
Both the United Nations and Amnesty International called for his life to be spared, pointing to what Amnesty said had been “numerous violations” in his trial, which it said was “grossly unfair.”
Please find more detail via the websites from Radio Free Europe and BBC News.
