Iranian authorities have refused to hand over the body of Kurdish political prisoner Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou following his secret execution, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has reported.

On the evening of 21 April, his family were summoned by judicial officials in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province, informed of the secret execution and warned against holding a public memorial.

Behzad Sarkhanlou, the Deputy Prosecutor of Orumiyeh, told the family that they would not receive the body and were forbidden to hold a public memorial.

Judicial officials also told Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou’s family that the execution had been carried out in secret in Tehran, while Iranian state media announced the same evening that he had been executed in an unknown location.

Meanwhile, investigations by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network suggest that the execution took place several days earlier in Orumiyeh, contradicting the official narrative. According to these findings, the body was buried in an undisclosed location.

The family, who had been holding a sit-in outside Orumiyeh Central Prison for five nights, returned to their hometown of Chaldoran in West Azerbaijan Province after learning of the execution. A private funeral is currently being held at their home.

KHRN has also learned that this morning, the Ministry of Intelligence in Chaldoran prevented a Sunni cleric from attending the ceremony and summoned one of Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou’s family members, threatening them and other family members with arrest.

The authorities have ordered all relatives who have spoken to foreign media – including the daughter of the executed political prisoner, Ronahi Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou – to report to the Ministry of Intelligence.

The secret execution of the political prisoner took place despite the fact that in the last few days, following his transfer to solitary confinement, a petition for retrial had been submitted to the Supreme Court and an appeal for clemency had been submitted to the Amnesty and Clemency Commission. Nevertheless, under pressure from the Ministry of Intelligence, the execution was carried out.

Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou was moved to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution on 16 April, and his lawyer received an official notice setting 18 April as the scheduled date.

Following international outcry and protests from his family, he called them briefly that day to say he was alive and urged them to continue their efforts.

On the same day, the head of Orumiyeh Central Prison, Peyman Khanzadeh, informed the family that the execution had been halted by order of the prosecutor and that the case was under review.

In recent days, his family continued their sit-in outside the Islamic Revolutionary Court and Orumiyeh Central Prison, demanding information about his fate. However, the prosecutor and the head of the prison stated that the political prisoner was in the custody of the security services.