ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The family and lawyer of Ramin Hossein Panahi, a Kurdish man on death row in Iran, reject the court verdict that he was armed during his arrest by security forces lasy year and that he had never shot anyone. An Iranian court recently defended its decision to uphold the death sentence against Ramin Hossein Panahi, whose case has drawn international attention, explaining that the Kurdish man was an armed threat. But the man’s lawyer has countered with a different version of events and further accusations that authorities tortured Panahi. Panahi was arrested on June 22, 2017 in Sanandaj, charged with being a member of the Kurdish opposition party Komala. The court stated that Panahi had received military training and was carrying a gun and a grenade at the time of his arrest. Panahi’s brother, Rafiq, confirmed to Rudaw in a recent interview that his brother is a Komala Peshmerga but that he was in Rojhelat (Iranian Kurdistan) to visit family when he was shot and injured by Iranian security forces. According to Panahi’s lawyer, Hossein Ahmadi Niyaz, his client was unarmed and in the back seat of the vehicle that was “attacked” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “Ramin neither held a gun nor shot anybody. He was not involved in the armed dispute,” Niyaz said in a recent detailed statement published by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). Panahi was wounded and lost consciousness in the attack that killed three of his relatives. Whether the family members he was travelling with were armed or returned fire in the incident is not clear, but Niyaz insists “my client was never armed.” The lawyer also notes that no Revolutionary Guards were injured, as per an official statement from the force, “which shows that the IRGC agents had been prepared for an armed conflict.” Panahi was taken to hospital in Sanandaj where he underwent surgery and then was “immediately” transferred to solitary confinement rather than remaining in hospital to recover, his lawyer stated. He was also interrogated, despite being in poor health and in the absence of the presence of a court-appointed lawyer Niyaz, retained by Panahi to represent him, attended his first court hearing in Sanandaj on January 15, 2018. In the private hearing, Panahi said he had been tortured. The lawyer said the court ignored a request to deal with this allegation before proceeding. Panahi was sentenced to death by hanging on January 25, 2018. Niyaz appealed. A court decided on the appeal without holding a hearing, upholding the death sentence a month after the appeal was filed. According to Niyaz, Panahi was not armed at the time of his wounding and arrest, nor was he involved in an assassination plan. His punishment, therefore, “is not in accordance with the principle of proportionality.” “The penalty for membership in the Komala Party and promoting its values is not death penalty per the Regulations of Islamic Republic of Iran. The penalty for such charge is only imprisonment and not execution,” the lawyer stated. Komala is a Kurdish opposition group accused by Tehran of carrying out terror attacks. The party resumed its armed struggle against Iran in 2015. The court has insisted that Panahi received a fair trial and had confessed to the crime. The case drew international condemnation – from UN officials and Amnesty International. Panahi’s scheduled execution was temporarily stayed last week. His brother Rafiq told Rudaw that another brother was able to visit Panahi this weekend. While Panahi and his family are happy about his reprieve, the suicide of another family member has hit them hard. Nishtiman, a niece of Panahi, killed herself under the stress of her uncle’s imminent execution and the continued detention of her husband. The whole family is “a revolutionary family and we have martyrs” who have given their lives for the Kurdish cause, said Rafiq. “Therefore, the state executes Ramin in a bid to retaliate and scare Rojhelat youth.” He believes the temporary stay of execution was because of the international pressure and because authorities feared widespread protests if Panahi was killed so soon after his niece’s suicide. “My mother and extended family have told Iran that Ramin is a red line for us. They will face a widespread protest if they execute him,” Rafiq said. The lawyer Niyaz agrees: “My young client is completely innocent and the people of Kurdistan and Iran know that killing an innocent person is like killing the whole nation. The government should practice tolerance and patience instead of attempting to eliminate problems by killing innocent people.” Panahi’s mother has endured a lot over the years – another of her sons, Anwar, was sentenced to death six years ago, but his sentence was converted to prison time and he was released after eight years. Another son was killed and one more is in jail, serving nine years. But Rafiq described his mother’s morale as “still high.”
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