Iran has executed a Kurdish man for armed rebellion despite international pressure for his life to be spared, activists said on Monday.
Heidar Ghorbani's trial has been criticised as unfair with confessions allegedly obtained through force.
Ghorbani was executed on Sunday morning in Sanandaj prison in western Iran's Kurdistan province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights NGO said. Neither his family nor his lawyer had been informed, it said.
UN human rights experts had in September urged Iran to repeal his death sentence over “serious concerns” that he did not receive a fair trial and was tortured during pretrial detention.
Amnesty International had also called for his life to be spared, saying that there had been “numerous violations” in his trial, which it said was “grossly unfair".
Campaign groups say that Ghorbani was convicted and sentenced to death last year in connection with the 2016 killing of three men linked to the pro-government Basij militia. He had been jailed since October that year.
He was convicted of providing transport and logistical support for the killings. But the court verdict acknowledged he had never been armed.
-
An Iranian woman casts her vote in the first round of the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran on June 14, 2013. Iranians are voting to choose a new president in an election the reformists hope their sole candidate will win in the face of divided conservative ranks, four years after the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. AFP PHOTO/ATTA ATTA KENARE *** Local Caption *** 340797-01-08.jpg -
There is no clear front-runner among the six candidates trying to succeed the combative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose eight-year era is coming to an end because of rules blocking a run for a third consecutive term. But influential figures on all si??? -
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to participate in force in the vote, damning US officials who criticised the fairness of the election.. Seda Ravandi / AFP Photo -
Iran's security networks, meanwhile, have displayed their near-blanket control, ranging from swift crackdowns on any public dissent to cybercops blocking opposition Internet websites and social media . Behrouz Mehri / AFP Photo -
If no candidate wins an outright majority, a runoff pitting the two top finishers would take place June 21, so even a strong showing by Rowhani in Friday's voting could face another test. Results are expected early Saturday. Ebrahim Noroozi / AP Photo -
A cleric fills in his ballot paper in a mosque in Qom. Mohammad Akhlagi / Reuters -
Rowhani's backers, such as former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani – who was blocked from running by Iran's ruling system – have urged reformists and others to cast ballots and abandon plans to boycott the election in protest over years of arrests a??? -
Long lines snaked outside some voting stations in Tehran and elsewhere. The enthusiasm suggests an election that was once viewed as a pre-engineered victory for Iran's ruling establishment has become a chance for reform-minded voters re-exert their voices??? -
Iranian men show their documents as they vote in the first round of the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran. Atta Kenare / AFP Photo
Videos posted on social media showed crowds gathering on Sunday for a memorial ceremony for Ghorbani in his home town of Kamyaran in western Iran, chanting “martyrs don't die".
“Heidar Ghorbani was subjected to torture and sentenced to death without due process and any evidence against him,” said Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
“Heidar's death penalty is unlawful even under the Islamic republic's own laws.”
The group said his case was still with the Supreme Court and his relatives had not been warned in advance of the execution and merely pointed towards his grave after it was carried out, it said.
Amnesty International had also previously raised concerns about Ghorbani's appearance after his arrest in a so-called documentary broadcast in 2017 by Iran's state-run English language channel Press-TV about the killings.
Activists have repeatedly complained over Iranian state media's continued practice of broadcasting “confessions” from convicts under the guise of interviews, fearing that they were obtained through torture.
