ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish political prisoner has been sentenced to death for the second time in Iran, after being charged with the March 2017 killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member.
Shaker Behrooz, 32, who had already been sentenced to death in September for his alleged affiliation with the Komala Party, was sentenced to death for the second time on Saturday by Branch One of Urmia’s Criminal Court for the murder of IRGC member Mamal Mohamedi Bawan, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
Komala is a leftist political party that has engaged in an armed struggle against the Iranian government, and also has bases in the Kurdistan Region.
KHRN said someone familiar with the case said the court prevented 10 people from testifying in the prisoner’s defence.
“This decision was taken even though the accused was not at the place of the murder when it happened," they added.
Behrooz has faced continuous torture in prison and confessed under duress, the source told KRHN, adding that he was guilty of neither crime.
The source confirmed that Behrooz was part of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) in the Kurdistan Region for over eight months, before he left and returned to Iran towards the end of 2018.
Founded in 1945, the KDPI is the main Kurdish opposition group in Iran, though the group ceased all armed activities against Iran more than a decade ago to seek a political solution.
Behrooz, from Urmia in West Azerbaijan province, "presented himself to the Urmia Intelligence Office in the fall of 2018 when he returned to Iran [from the Kurdistan Region] after receiving an “immunity letter” from the IRGC. He was detained but released after 14 days of interrogation at the Ministry of Intelligence Detention Centre in Urmia," the KHRN said in September.
He was arrested in 2019 over the murder of Bawan.
Arif Walzi, a relative of Behrooz, previously told Rudaw that Iranian authorities in Urmia had "promised" his family that they would not punish him if he chose to return to Iran.
Amnesty in Iran condemned his first death sentence in a tweet on October 6 saying, “He should be given a fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty.”
The group has spoken out against Iran's execution of prisoners, which has drawn international outcry in recent months, particularly following the execution of journalist Ruhollah Zam on December 12, and wrestler Nafid Afkari in September.
“Iran’s increasing use of the death penalty as a weapon for repression warrants the immediate attention of the international community," it tweeted on December 18, adding that "death row prisoners from Iran’s disadvantaged ethnic minorities are particularly at risk. “
Since the heightening of US-Iran tensions and re-imposition of US sanctions in 2018, Iranian authorities have started tightening the noose on labor activists, journalists, satirists, environmentalists, anti-death penalty campaigners, and researchers, detaining them in droves and sentencing some in trials whose fairness has been questioned.
Tens of thousands of political prisoners are jailed in Iran over various charges, including advocating for democracy and promoting women's or workers' rights. Ethnic minority groups, including Kurds and Azeris, are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a July 2019 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran.
