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Iran witnesses rare anti-government protest after execution of Kurdish prisoner

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Dec 20, 2021, 06:48 PM IST
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Representative image Photograph:(Getty)

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Heidar Ghorbani was executed despite international pressure for his life to be spared. He was convicted in connection with killing of three men linked to pro-government Basij militia. Heidar Ghorbani had been in jail since October 2016

Iran witnessed a rare anti-government protest and sloganeering after authorities executed a Kurdish man. The crowd gathered in the hometown of Heidar Ghorbani, the executed man and raised anti-government slogans.

Heidar Ghorbani was executed despite international pressure for his life to be spared. He was convicted in connection with killing of three men linked to pro-government Basij militia. Heidar Ghorbani had been in jail since October 2016.

Heidar Ghorbani was executed on Sunday morning in Sanandaj prison in western Iran's Kurdistan province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said, adding that neither his family nor his lawyer had been given prior warning.

UN human rights experts had in September urged Iran to repeal his death sentence over "serious concerns" that he did not receive a fair trial and was tortured during pre-trial detention.

Amnesty International had also called for his life to be spared, saying that there had been "numerous violations" in his trial, which it said was "grossly unfair".

Campaign groups say that Ghorbani was convicted and sentenced to death in 2020 in connection with the killing in 2016 of three men linked to the pro-government Basij militia. He had been jailed since October 2016.

He was convicted of providing transport and logistical support for the killings. But the court verdict acknowledged he had never been armed.

Videos posted on social media showed crowds gathering on Sunday for a memorial ceremony for him in his home town of Kamyaran in western Iran, chanting "martyrs don't die".

"Heidar Ghorbani was subjected to torture and sentenced to death without due process and any evidence against him," said Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. 

"Heidar's death penalty is unlawful even under the Islamic Republic's own laws."

(With inputs from agencies)