Iran executes Kurd after five years in prison

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s central Urmia prison on Friday carried out the death sentence of a Kurdish kolbar who had been imprisoned for over year five years and described by a human rights monitor as a political prisoner. At least five other Kurds were also executed in the same prison on drug-related charges.

Iranian border guards shot and severely wounded Mohayyedin Ebrahimi before arresting him in November 2017 while he was working as a kolbar, a semi-legal porter transporting untaxed goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border and sometimes the Iran-Turkey border.

He was sentenced to death in August 2018 for his alleged involvement with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), a Kurdish opposition party that has waged an on-and-off armed war against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which described Ebrahimi as a “political prisoner.”

Ebrahimi met with his family for the last time on Thursday before being transferred to solitary confinement. Early Friday morning, his family was informed that his sentence was being suspended, but hours later they were called to collect his body.

Amnesty International condemned Ebrahimi’s execution. The human rights monitor criticized his “unfair” trial that relied on “torture-tainted” confessions.

Amnesty International condemns today's execution of Kurdish man Mohayyedin Ebrahimi after a grossly unfair trial that relied on torture-tainted “confessions.” Iran's @khamenei_ir must stop using the death penalty as a tool of political repression & put a moratorium on executions. https://t.co/Mzb68b47gW

— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) March 17, 2023

Iran executed at least 94 people in January and February. Nearly a third of them were minorities, according to research from Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an Iranian human rights monitor. Amnesty accused Iranian authorities of using the death penalty to suppress minority groups who have led recent anti-government protests.

Kolbars are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment. They are regularly targeted by border guards in the Kurdish areas of western Iran. They also face the risks of freezing to death during winter storms and falling off mountainsides under the weight of the heavy loads they carry on their backs.