On Saturday, Kurdish political prisoner Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh was secretly executed in Iran. The Iranian judiciary accused him of murdering a pro-government cleric in 2009, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). The execution was carried out at Ghezel Hezar Prison in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran.

Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh was arrested in December 2013 at the age of 23 by officials from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and has been in prison ever since. According to the KHRN, he has never been granted leave from prison in the twelve years he has been incarcerated and was severely tortured during interrogations. He spent the first four years of his imprisonment in solitary confinement in the prison in his hometown of Sine (Sanandaj), and was later transferred to Ward 209 of Tehran's Evin Prison. Self-incriminating statements made under duress ultimately served as the basis for the death sentence.

The death sentence against Khiyareh was handed down by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by the notorious “death judge” Abolqasem Salavati. In addition to murder, the charges included “enmity against God” and “membership in terrorist groups with links to foreign intelligence services.” His arrest came four years after the murder of Mamousta Sheikh al-Islam, a Sunni cleric loyal to the regime. According to the KHRN, there was no evidence of Khiyareh's involvement in the killing other than a confession extracted under torture.

All appeals, including requests for a retrial or suspension of the sentence, have been rejected by the competent judicial authorities in recent years. Official bodies have also repeatedly linked the case to protests by the Green Movement against the Islamic Republic and accused Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh of involvement in the killing of security forces. The family of the 35-year-old was not notified of the execution in advance.

Human rights organizations have been criticizing the rigorous application of the death penalty in Iran for years. They accuse the regime's judiciary of using executions to intimidate critical voices. According to Amnesty International, more than 1,000 death sentences have been carried out in Iran this year. According to the NGO Iran Human Rights, this is the highest number of documented executions in at least 30 years.