Two ethnic Kurdish women, Pakhshan Azizi and Warisha Moradi, face possible imminent execution in Iran, Human Rights Watch said today.
On January 8, 2025, the Iranian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi, who is accused of membership in in the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) and "armed rebellion against the state" through arm efforts to advance the goals of groups opposing the state. Amir Raesian, Azizi's lawyer, in an interview with Shargh Daily on January 8 said that Branch 39 of the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence without considering the numerous flaws in the case that her legal team cited in her appeal. In November 2024, Iran's Revolutionary Court in Tehran also sentenced Warisha Moradi, another Kurdish prisoner, to death on the charge of "armed rebellion against the state" through arm efforts to advance the goals of groups opposing the state, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported.
"Iranian authorities are using the death penalty as a weapon to crush dissent, disproportionately targeting political activists and ethnic minorities in a deliberate effort to instill fear," said Nahid Naghshbandi, acting Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The authorities had arrested Azizi, originally from Mahabad, in Tehran on August 4, 2023, along with her father, Aziz Azizi, her sister Pershang Azizi, and her sister-in-law Hossein Abbasi. Her family members were released on bail after two weeks. The authorities denied Azizi access to a lawyer and family visits for four months. Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to death on July 23, 2024, on charges of "armed rebellion against the state" and alleged "membership in opposition groups."
The decision to uphold her sentence garnered significant attention and sparked widespread protest. Over 3,400 artists, writers, journalists, political and civil activists, and other citizens signed a statement expressing their strong opposition to the ruling. They said that no society could achieve justice through executions, and that the death penalty has no place in the pursuit of fairness. Prominent figures such as Atena Daemi, a human rights activist, Jafar Panahi, an Iranian film director, and Esmail Bakhshi, an Iranian activist, joined in voicing their serious objection to the ruling, condemning it as an act of oppression.
Moradi is a member of the Free Women's Society of Eastern Kurdistan. Security forces arrested Moradi in the city of Sanandaj in Kurdistan province in August 2023. She was later transferred to Evin prison, where she was kept in solitary confinement for five months and tortured, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that the authorities did not allow her to defend herself and that the presiding judge did not permit her lawyers to present a defense.
On January 7, the Supreme Court in Tehran also upheld the death sentences of Behrouz Ehsani Eslamlou and Mehdi Hasani, both held in Evin prison on charges of "armed rebellion against the state," "waging war against God," "corruption on earth," and "assembly and collusion against national security," the Human Rights Activist News Agency reported. Ehsani, a political activist, was arrested after joining the nationwide protests in 2022 in Tehran and was accused of membership in the People's Mojahedin Organization (MEK), according to BBC Persian.
Security forces arrested Ehsani on November 28, 2022, in Tehran. Security forces arrested Hasani in Zanjan on September 9, 2022, accusing him of membership in the People's Mojahedin Organization (MEK).
In 2024 Iranian authorities executed at least 901 people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with a rise in the number of women executed. Most of the executions last year were for drug-related offences, but dissidents and people connected to the 2022 protests were also executed.
"The international community should apply unwavering pressure on Iran to halt all executions, especially those targeting prisoners detained for political activity such as Pakhshan Azizi and Warisha Moradi," Naghshbandi said.
