The Kurdish activist Pakhshan Azizi faces execution in Iran after his death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, human rights groups said on Thursday. The 40-year-old woman was sentenced to death in June after being found guilty of “rebellion” following her arrest in August 2023. She is being held in the women’s wing of Tehran’s Evin prison, the same one where she was locked up Cecilia Sala for three weeks. His lawyer Amir Raisian he had appealed to the Supreme Court, but “unfortunately, despite the numerous defects of the case, the appeal was rejected and the death sentence was confirmed”. Quoted by Tehran newspaper Shargh on Wednesday, Raisian said he would submit a request for a new trial.
AzizShe is accused of being part of outlawed Kurdish armed groups operating in the region, but her lawyers have denied any links to the organizations. Amnesty International called Azizi’s trial “grossly unfair”, describing her as a humanitarian worker and civil society activist who from 2014 to 2022 helped women and children in camps in north-eastern Syria and northern Iraq displaced by territories controlled by the Islamic State. Amnesty also stated that the woman was subjected to “forced disappearance”, as well as “torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations”. Lawyer Raisian complained that the courts paid no attention to evidence that his activities in the camps were “peaceful,” “had no political dimension and were focused on providing humanitarian aid.”
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, which this week reported that 31 women have been executed in Iran in 2024, said the prosecution of Azizi was aimed at intimidating society after particularly intense 2022-2023 women-led protests in Kurdistan. “This illegal sentence, issued to instill fear in society and prevent new protests, must be condemned in the strongest terms by the international community,” said the director of IHR, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. The Iranian Narges Mohammadi, winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize who was imprisoned in Evin together with Azizi but is currently out of prison for health reasons, said that “it is our duty not to remain silent. The confirmation of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence by the Supreme Court reflects the regime’s determination to increase repression of women and take revenge on the magnificent and powerful Women, Life, Freedom movement,” she wrote on social media.