Simultaneously with the widespread civil efforts to stop the execution of Mohammad Ghobadlou, one of the detainees of last year’s nationwide protests in Iran, which was ultimately carried out today, Tuesday, January 23, news sources have reported the execution of Farhad Salimi, a Kurdish political prisoner.
According to a report by Hengaw on Tuesday, January 23, the execution order of Farhad Salimi, a Kurdish prisoner from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan province, was implemented in Karaj’s Ghezel Hesar prison.
Farhad Salimi was on a hunger strike for three weeks before his execution. Farhad’s family waited for two days to have their final visit with him, but the regime’s authorities did not allow them to meet him.
Earlier, an international human rights organization had issued a warning that Farhad Salimi, a prisoner, was at risk of execution. On Sunday, January 21, he was transferred to solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar prison in Alborz province and was in “imminent danger of execution.”
Concerns about the execution of Salim had increased in recent days following the executions of Qasem Abesteh, Ayoub Karimi, and Davood Abdollahi, three other Kurdish prisoners who were executed in separate cases over the past three months.
Amnesty International emphasized in a statement on January 22 that the trials of these prisoners have been severely unfair and accompanied by torture and other ill-treatment.
Tortured prisoner Farhad Salimi, from Iran’s Kurdish Sunni minority, faces imminent execution in Ghezel Hesar prison after transfer to solitary confinement yesterday. The authorities must stop his execution NOW. https://t.co/DqER0kRKoN pic.twitter.com/Nbi5Pi8RHO
— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) January 22, 2024
Farhad Salimi and six other defendants in this case were sentenced to death by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh, in March 2016.
Anwar Khodari, Kamran Sheikhi, Farhad Salimi, Qasem Abesteh, Khosrow Besharat, Ayoub Karimi, and Davood Abdollahi were seven defendants who were collectively sentenced to death, and until today, three of them have been executed.
Amnesty International states that the authorities of the Iranian regime use the death penalty as a tool to suppress protesters, opponents, and minorities, while simultaneously restricting the access of ethnic and religious minorities to education, employment, and political positions.
