On Thursday, July 25, 2024, Iranian authorities in Urmia Central Prison executed Kamran Sheikheh, a Sunni political prisoner, after subjecting him to 15 years of imprisonment and torture.
Kamran Sheikheh, along with six other Sunni compatriots, was arrested in December 2009 and severely tortured in the Urmia Intelligence Detention Center to extract forced confessions.
In March 2016, they were sentenced to death on charges of “acting against national security, propaganda against the regime, and corruption on earth” by Mohammad, a criminal judge who has been sanctioned internationally for his human rights abuses. Their death sentences was confirmed in June 2018 by Abolghassem Salavati, another criminal judge. The regime’s Supreme Court upheld these sentences in 2019.
The Iranian Resistance had issued numerous statements including and called on the UN Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as relevant UN rapporteurs and bodies, the European Union, and member countries, to take immediate action to stop the Iranian regime’s killing machine and save prisoners on death row, including Kamran Sheikheh.
Sheikheh was the last survivor in the dossier. In the past year, the regime executed all other prisoners in the same dossier, including Khosrow Besharat, Anwar Khezri, Farhad Salimi, Davood Abdollahi, Ayub Karimi, and Qasem Abesteh.
Death sentences against political prisoners
The execution of Sheikheh comes against the backdrop of a killing spree in Iran’s prisons. On July 24, Political prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison protested and went on strike against the criminal death sentence issued for Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi. This sentence was issued by the criminal judge Iman Azizi at the 26th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on July 23 on charges of “baghi,” or rebellion against the religious state.
Following the issuance of the death sentence to Pakhshan Azizi, all political prisoners in the women’s ward yard protested by chanting slogans against this criminal sentence.
The female political prisoners chanted slogans in defiance of the regime’s brutality: “Death to the execution regime — We stand until the death sentence is revoked — The first and last word is overthrow, overthrow — The executioner’s noose no longer affects us — Fear us, executioner, we are the generation of resistance, and by the blood of our comrades, we stand until the end.”
They also announced that they would stay in the prison yard from 7 PM until morning. Symbolically, they burned a noose in protest against executions and chanted, “We stand until the death sentence is revoked.”
New wave of executions
On July 23, Iran’s hanged seven prisoners, including three women, in Birjand Prison. The day before, a prisoner named Hassan Fallahi was hanged in Qom Central Prison. On July 21, six prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hesar and Dizelabad prisons in Kermanshah, and on July 20, four prisoners were executed in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz. This amounts to 18 executions in just four days, including four women.
One of the prisoners executed in Dieselabad prison on July 21 was Danial Kazeminejad, who was hanged in retaliation for the death of a criminal IRGC member named Sajjad Amiri, who had been involved in killing people in Iraq and Syria for some time.
In another development, on Tuesday, July 23, at least ten prisoners in Birjand, Sanandaj, and Urmia were transferred to solitary confinement for execution.
Defiance by political prisoners
On Tuesday, July 23, 2024, prisoners in 16 prisons, including Evin (women’s ward, wards 4, 6, and 8), Ghezel Hesar (units 3 and 4), Karaj Central Prison, Khorramabad Prison, Tabriz (women’s ward), Ardabil Prison, Qaem Shahr Prison, Khoy Prison, Naqadeh Prison, Saqqez Prison, Mashhad Prison, Urmia Prison, Marivan Prison, Kamyaran Prison, Baneh Prison, and Salmas Prison, went on a hunger strike for the 26th week in the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign.
In their statement, the striking prisoners said: “While the government is unable to respond to the legitimate demands of the people, it seeks to create fear and intimidation in society by killing and executing prisoners on various charges to prevent future protests and uprisings by the oppressed people.”
The ruling religious fascism in Iran holds the world record for executing women and minors who were underage at the time of the alleged crimes. The regime has ramped up executions after its sham presidential elections, indicative of its fear of protests and popular uprisings. This regime cannot continue its disgraceful existence for a single day without repression and executions.
The increasing trend of executions after the regime’s sham presidential elections also shows that this regime has no capacity for the slightest flexibility in its executions, repression, and human rights violations.
The international community has a responsibility to protect the rights of Iranian citizens and political prisoners against this regime. Meanwhile, the people of Iran are responding to the regime’s new wave of repression, torture, and executions through maximum defiance, with rebellious youths targeting regime institutions and Iranian Resistance Units expanding their ranks and organizing more protests.