An Informed Source: Pakhshan Azizi, a Death Row Prisoner, Has Denied Her Charges

While the Islamic Revolutionary Court has sentenced Pakhshan Azizi, a political prisoner condemned to death on charges of 'baghi' (rebellion), an informed source told Voice of America that Ms. Azizi had previously denied all the accusations in her case, including baghi, in a letter. According to Islamic penal law in the Islamic Republic, 'baghi' refers to a crime in which an individual or group engages in armed action against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The punishment for baghi, depending on the use or non-use of weapons, is either execution or imprisonment. The informed source, who is close to Pakhshan Azizi's family, stated to Voice of America: 'When Pakhshan Azizi was in Syria, if there was a weapon, which there wasn't, it was to protect herself against ISIS, which the whole world was at war with.' This source mentioned that Azizi was 'educated in Tabriz and Tehran in social work and sociology and later worked as a women's rights activist and researcher.' The first record of Pakhshan Azizi's arrest was in 2009 at Tehran University, where she was detained during a student protest against the execution of Mr. Ehsan Fattahian and spent several months in Tehran's Intelligence Detention Center and Evin Prison. Afterward, she was released on bail and her sentence was suspended. The source explained that Pakhshan Azizi was forced to leave Iran about two or three years later due to pressures related to her research. She spent some time in Iraqi Kurdistan and then went to Syria during the ISIS crisis. The source emphasized that Azizi only worked in Syria as a journalist and women's rights activist. The source added that Azizi returned to Iraqi Kurdistan and came to Iran to visit her family after ten years, where she was arrested in Tehran along with her father and three other family members by more than twenty intelligence agents in Kharazi Town. Among those arrested was her sixteen-year-old niece, and they were blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs, and arrested with guns to their heads, lying on the floor of the car. After two or three days, her niece was released, and after two weeks, her family was released on bail while her father was ill. The informed source stated that this political prisoner was subjected to severe torture after her arrest, deprived of access to a lawyer and contact with her family for more than four months. After that, she was charged with baghi, which is carrying and using weapons against the Islamic regime. The source mentioned that unfortunately, she was sentenced to death in Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by Mr. Iman Afshari, and three of Azizi's family members, including her father, were also sentenced to imprisonment. In response to the news of Pakhshan Azizi's execution, Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, announced on Wednesday, July 25, that political and ideological women prisoners in Evin Prison 'raised their voices against the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi by collectively gathering in the prison yard.' Previously, the Iran Human Rights Association announced on Tuesday, July 23, 1403, that Pakhshan Azizi, a political prisoner previously accused of 'baghi,' had been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court. Since early July, she had been deprived of visits and contact with her family by the order of Evin prison authorities. Pakhshan Azizi had previously recounted her account of her arrest and torture by security agencies in a letter titled 'Concealment of Truth and Its Alternative,' which was obtained by Hengaw and published on July 31, two days before the announcement of her death sentence. She wrote that she was repeatedly hanged during interrogations, taken ten meters deep into the ground, and brought back out, being regarded as a socially defeated and broken individual. This political prisoner has always faced accusations of 'membership in opposition groups,' which she has consistently denied. Risha Moradi and Sharifeh Mohammadi, two other political prisoners, are also imprisoned on charges of 'baghi.' According to reports from human rights organizations, Iranian officials have intensified the repression of activist women and human rights defenders following the nationwide protests of 'Women, Life, Freedom' in 1401, resorting to harsher methods and issuing heavy sentences to silence dissenters and dissidents. Kani Kermpour, a women's rights activist, commented on the death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi: 'The Islamic Republic wants to take revenge on fighters and women.' The Iranian government executed Kamran Sheikha, the seventh defendant in the murder case of an imam in Mahabad. Protests from several women prisoners in Evin against the death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi: 'We will stay in the prison yard.' The second political female prisoner sentenced to death; 'Pakhshan Azizi' was previously accused of 'baghi.' Reactions from users to the death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi: 'They are taking revenge on women activists in the most brutal way.'