Iranian-Kurd prisoner in imminent danger of execution

Freedom Messenger - According to various reports Shirkou Moarefi, an Iranian-Kurd political prisoner, will be executed on May 1.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that a local Kurdish newspaper in Iraq is citing reliable sources as it reports that Shirkou Moarefi is set to be executed on May 1, International Workers Day.

At the same time, the Campaign for the Defence of Political Prisoners reports that the Islamic Court of the city of Saghez has approved the execution for May 1.

The Campaign has also published a letter written by Shirkou Moarefi’s family, which urges human rights organizations and international bodies to negotiate with the Islamic Republic government to save the condemned man’s life.

“Shirkou was charged with Moharebeh (enmity with God) by the Islamic Republic for his support of an organization that for years had put aside armed resistance and was only active in cultural activities, and his death sentence was issued after a few minutes in court,” the Moarefi family writes.

Aged 31, Moarefi was sentenced to death for “activities against national security” and “enmity with God.”

He was arrested in November of 2008 in Saghez for cooperating with the Komeleh Party, a dissident Kurdish organization.

Last year, Khalil Bahramian told Rooz-on-line that his client’s file was being reviewed by a branch of the Qom Supreme Court and also by the Amnesty and Impunity Commission.

Shirkou Moarefi was not a member of the dissident group Komeleh but rather just a sympathizer.

In November 2009, Ehsan Fatahian a 28-year-old Iranian Kurd was executed in Sanandaj for cooperating with the Komeleh organization. In May 2010, five other political prisoners, four of them Kurdish, were hanged in Evin Prison in Tehran.