The death execution of Farzad Kamangar, a Kurdish teacher, Ali Heydarian and Farhad Vakili, confirmed by the court of appeal. This sentence issued before by the branch 30 of the Iranian revolutionary court on Monday February 25 2008. They are convicted of acts against the security of the country.
According to the report, the trial lasted not more than 7 minutes. Farzad Kamangar, was arrested in 2006 and according to several reports had been tortured. The security forces detained him shortly after he arrived in Tehran from Kamyaran.
Since his arrest, the authorities have held him in various prisons and tortured - his family and lawyer have seen clear signs of this when visiting him. He was also a member of the “Human Rights Activists in Iran” group, according to the report. Several human rights organizations, such as Human Rights watch and Amnesty International have protested against the death sentences.
Roozonline: They Want to Use Me as a Scapegoat
The Islamic Republic’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of three Kurdish activists, Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili and Ali Heidarian, who were charged with being “Moharebeh” [literally, “enmity against God,” a charge often applied to those engaged in armed struggle with the state]. In this connection, Farzad Kamangar released a short message from prison noting, “This verdict has been communicated to me and prison and judgment enforcement officials have asked me to write a letter requesting forgiveness. The problem is that I have not committed any crime to ask for forgiveness.”
Farzad Kamangar added, “They want to break my morale but I have to say I am doing well and my spirits are high. My only point is that I have never been a member of any political party or group. This is nothing but an accusation against me. I have been a member of the P.K.K. as much as I have been a member of the Tamil Tigers. They want to use me as a scapegoat. More interestingly, members of P.K.K. who are arrested in Iran are not executed. They are not even executed in Turkey, but I have been sentenced to death even though I have not been and am not a member of this group. I have no fear of death and sincerely thank the Iranian people and all those who have worked for my release.”
The attorney representing the three Kurdish defendants, Khalil Bahramian, told Kurdistan’s Human Rights Watch news agency, “Although the court ruling has not been sent to me in writing, it was verbally confirmed when I went to the Revolutionary Court. I am not yet aware of details of the new judgment.”
Khalil Bahramian added, “Regarding the first trial, there was none. The session took a few minutes and no time was given for defense; I will use all legal means to protest this new judgment. If I do not receive a convincing response regarding my client’s acquittal, I will complain to the [International Court of Justice at the] Hague.”
Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian and Farhad Vakili were previously sentenced to death by the thirtieth branch of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh and membership in the Kurdish Workers’ Party (P.K.K.). The passage of this judgment was met with protest and widespread support for Farzad Kamangar, in particular. Prior to his arrest, Kamangar worked as a peaceful civil activist and had cooperated with several organizations in Kurdistan. In addition, the interrogation process and trial of Farzad Kamangar was blasted by human rights organizations.
Farzad Kamangar has published several letters from prison insisting on his innocence and detailing tortures he was subjected to in prison to confess.
Meanwhile, following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the death penalty, Farzad Kamangar’s mother said, “Farzad is a dear and lovely individual who worked to secure people’s freedom. I ask all parties and progressive forces, and invite all news media organizations, to help rescue my son from execution. Farzad is not my son only, he is the son of all Iranians, and I invite everyone to join hands and defend humanity. Do something to rescue my dear Farzad from execution and prison.”
Akam Mokri
Rooz
What we have said here is only a brief listing of academic violations and denial of right to education in Iranian universities today. Students are determined to continue their legal and rightful struggle to promote independence of universities and uphold academic freedoms, although many are sacrificed down this path.
Iran is a state party to both the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (without reservation) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), both of which prohibit the execution of persons under the age of 18 at the time of their offense. In ratifying the CRC, Iran declared an extremely broad reservation, “not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws.”
one must not forget that one aspect of “security” cases is the image that they carry for the groups that advance such issues. Therefore, before fake charges take to the news-media and become public, those who have had a hand in arresting the students must be weakened. Otherwise, after the severe charges are made public, repeated and are tied to the image of the actors, even the intervention of the head of the judiciary (as history demonstrates) cannot be of much help to the detainees.
How can we tell the judiciary officials of Iran that according to law juveniles can stay alive and continue to live with appropriate and suitable punishment? How must one make this request from the judiciary a public and wide-spread demand and point out that killing a juvenile who has not wholeheartedly committed an act does not solve any of the real problems facing the country?
Thousands of university students in an Iranian city have held a protest against the attempted sexual harassment of a female colleague by a top university official, the press reported on Monday. About 3,000 students at the university in the northwestern city of Zanjan staged the sit-in protest over the weekend at a sports hall on campus, the reports said.
We, in SID, have already started a campaign in the EU institutions to petition Iranian authorities to save Mr F. Kamangar’s life.