• Urgent Action

Urgent Action: FACING IMMINENT PROTEST-RELATED EXECUTION (Iran 64.23)

January 9, 2024

Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri is at imminent risk of execution in relation to the September-December 2022 popular uprising. On December 24, his family learned that Branch 39 of the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence. His sentence was sent for implementation, amid an ongoing spike in executions across the country. He is being held in solitary confinement and has been repeatedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including severe beatings. 

take action:

  • Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  • Click here to let us know the actions you took on Second Urgent Action 64.23. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.

contact information:

Head of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

c/o Embassy of Iran to the European Union, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt No. 15, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium

Supreme Leader ‘Ali Khamenei

c/o Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

622 3rd Ave, 34th floor, New York, NY 10017

Email: [email protected]

sample letter:

Dear Mr. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, 

I am concerned that Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri is at imminent risk of execution; on December 24, 2023, his sister stated publicly that the Supreme Court upheld her brother’s conviction and death sentence.

In early April 2023, Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz), and “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi). His trial was grossly unfair: the authorities denied him access to his independently chosen lawyer, and his forced “confessions” were aired by Iranian state media after his arrest in late December 2022, including in one video where he was filmed in bed with his arm visibly bloody and bandaged. The authorities accused him of involvement in the killing of a child during protests in Izeh, Khuzestan province, on November 16, 2022. However, according to Amnesty International’s investigations, plainclothes security officials used unlawful lethal force during protests in Izeh and fatally fired live ammunition at the child. Authorities blamed “terrorists”, but the boy’s family refuted these claims publicly and attributed responsibility to the authorities.  

I urge you to immediately halt any plans to carry out Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri’s execution and quash his conviction and death sentence. If he is charged with a recognizable criminal offense, proceedings must meet international fair trial standards without recourse to the death penalty and exclude coerced “confessions”. I urge you to immediately grant Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri access to his family, an independently chosen lawyer, and adequate medical care. I urge you to protect him from further torture and other ill-treatment and investigate torture allegations.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: