Amnesty International Calls the 'Arbitrary' Execution of Khosrow Basharat 'Shocking'

Amnesty International described the 'arbitrary' execution of Khosrow Basharat, a Kurdish political prisoner, by the Islamic Republic as 'shocking.' This human rights organization announced on Thursday, May 17, that it was 'shocked' by the execution of Khosrow Basharat, a member of Iran's Sunni Kurdish minority, which took place the previous day. Amnesty International continued: 'The execution of this Sunni prisoner occurred two weeks after the execution of another political prisoner named Anwar Khazari. These two individuals, along with four other Kurdish citizens, were accused of 'corruption on earth' during a 'severely unfair' trial.' Khosrow Basharat, a Kurdish political prisoner, was executed on Wednesday, May 16, after spending 15 years in Qazalhasar Prison in Karaj. This 38-year-old prisoner from Mahabad had been transferred to solitary confinement two weeks prior to the execution. Khosrow Basharat was among seven political prisoners who were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, on charges such as 'membership in Salafi groups' and 'corruption on earth' following their arrest in December 2009. One year after the murder of Abdul Rahim Tina, the imam of the Khalafay Rashidin Mosque in Mahabad, by unknown individuals, Khosrow Basharat and six others, including Farhad Salimi, Anwar Khazari, Qasem Abasteh, Davood Abdollahi, Kamran Sheikhe, and Ayoub Karimi, were arrested in connection with this case. Reports indicate that these seven political defendants were subjected to 'severe torture' during their detention, and human rights activists have described the judicial process regarding these seven political defendants as 'ambiguous' and fraught with multiple issues. In a letter of suffering in 2019, Khosrow Basharat denied all charges while detailing the torture he experienced in the Urmia Intelligence Detention Center. Human rights activists have consistently criticized the issuance of death sentences in the Islamic Republic by 'incompetent courts' and 'without observing the most basic rights of defendants' and without regard for the most fundamental human rights standards. Arash Sadeghi, a human rights activist and former political prisoner, previously wrote on 'X': 'The outcome of the case in a fair judicial process would have led to their freedom.' The Iran Human Rights Campaign emphasized that all these death sentences were issued in 'unjust, opaque courts without adhering to the minimum standards of a fair trial,' deeming these sentences to lack 'the slightest legal legitimacy.' The Islamic Republic has so far executed six of these political prisoners named Qasem Abasteh, Ayoub Karimi, Farhad Salimi, Davood Abdollahi, Anwar Khazari, and Khosrow Basharat, and according to human rights organizations, Kamran Sheikhe has also recently been transferred to solitary confinement in Qazalhasar Prison in Karaj. The Hengaw Human Rights Organization previously reported a 328% increase in executions in Iran in April compared to the previous month. According to this report, at least 77 prisoners, including three women and one Kurdish political prisoner, were executed in the Islamic Republic's prisons in April. In this context, over 80 human rights organizations issued a statement requesting that the continuation of cooperation between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Islamic Republic be conditioned on halting drug-related executions.