Iran executes Kurdish prisoner of conscience after 14 years in jail
Anvar Khezri was one of seven Kurdish prisoners of conscience who had been sentenced to death in a joint case. Four of his co-defendants have been executed in recent months.
Kurdish prisoner of conscience Anvar Khezri was executed this morning in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province, after 14 years in prison, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has reported.
Khezri was one of seven Kurdish prisoners of conscience who had been sentenced to death in a joint case on charges of “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz).
Four of Khezri’s co-defendants, Ghassem Abasteh, Ayoub Karimi, Davoud Abdollahi and Farhad Salimi, have been executed in recent months.
On 30 April, Khezri was transferred to solitary confinement and denied a final meeting with his family, KHRN has learned.
Khezri was arrested on 21 January 2010 after he was summoned to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, and then taken to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
In February 2019, Khezri stated in a letter that he had attempted suicide during interrogation at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh in protest at the physical and psychological torture he had been subjected to.
