Human rights sources in Iran report that Kamran Sheikheh, a Kurdish political prisoner, was executed on the morning of Thursday, July 25, in Urmia prison.
Six previous defendants in this case, named Qasem Abesteh, Ayub Karimi, Farhad Salimi, Davood Abdollahi, Anwar Khezri, and Khosrow Beasharat, were executed in recent months for the alleged murder of a government cleric in 2009.
In recent days, Kamran Sheikheh, a Sunni Kurdish prisoner sentenced to death, was transferred from Mahabad prison to solitary confinement in Urmia Central Prison for the execution of his sentence.
Prison officials informed the family of this prisoner, who had been incarcerated for 15 years, that his execution would be carried out on Thursday morning.
Arash Sadeghi, a former political prisoner, wrote about Kamran Sheikheh on the social media platform X: “Kamran always sang Kurdish songs during exercise time, for his mother, for Kurdistan, for Lake Zarivar. He missed them all.”
He also added: “Kamran and his six co-defendants were neither terrorists nor murderers. They were enamored with living.”
These seven defendants were subjected to “severe torture” to extract confessions during their detention, and the judicial process was “ambiguous” and marred by numerous flaws.
All these death sentences were issued in unfair, non-transparent courts that did not meet even the minimum standards of a fair trial and lack any legal validity.
Kamran Sheikheh and six other Sunni prisoners were sentenced to death in March 2016 by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh at Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. This verdict was overturned by Ali Razini in the Supreme Court.
Their case was referred back to Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court for reconsideration, and their trial was held from June 17 to 19, 2019. Judge Abolqasem Salavati once again issued death sentences for them.
