Urgent Action: FOUR KURDISH MEN AT GRAVE RISK OF EXECUTION (Iran 19.22)

Anwar Khezri, Farhad Salimi, Kamran Sheikheh and Khosrow Basharat, all from Iran’s Kurdish Sunni minority, are at grave risk of execution in Ghezel Hesar prison, Alborz province, amid an ongoing spike in executions across the country and following the arbitrary executions of three other Iranian Kurdish men between November 2023 and January 2024, who were tried in the same case. The seven men were convicted of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz) and sentenced to death in a grossly unfair trial marred by allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.  

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• 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.
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sample letter:

Dear Mr. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, 

I am deeply concerned that Iranian Sunni Kurdish men Anwar Khezri, Farhad Salimi, Kamran Sheikheh and Khosrow Basharat are at grave risk of execution in Ghezel Hesar prison, Karaj, Alborz province, following the arbitrary executions of Ghasem Abesteh on November 5, 2023, Ayoub Karimi on November 29, 2023, and Davoud Abdollahi on January 2, 2024, who were sentenced to death in the same case. Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran convicted Anwar Khezri, Ayoub Karimi, Davoud Abdollahi, Farhad Salimi, Ghasem Abesteh, Kamran Sheikheh and Khosrow Basharat of “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz) and national security offenses and sentenced them to death following a grossly unfair trial around June 2018, during which the presiding judge barred their lawyer from speaking. Despite serious fair trial violations, on February 3, 2020, Branch 41 of the Supreme Court upheld their convictions and death sentences, and, in early September 2020, Branch 38 of the Supreme Court rejected their request for retrial.

I urge you to immediately halt any plans to execute Anwar Khezri, Farhad Salimi, Kamran Sheikheh, and Khosrow Basharat, quash their convictions and death sentences, and grant them fair retrials in proceedings in line with international fair trial standards without recourse to the death penalty and excluding coerced “confessions”. I also urge you to ensure that they are protected from further torture and other ill-treatment and their torture allegations investigated.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

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