Beating of Ramin Hosseinpanahi in Prison

Ramin Hosseinpanahi's brother reported that this Kurdish activist sentenced to death has been beaten in Sanandaj Central Prison, stating that prison officials told his brother he would either be executed or killed in prison. On Thursday, July 5, Amjad Hosseinpanahi tweeted about the beating, quoting that his brother has been transferred to a ward for inmates convicted of murder and drug offenses, where officials warned him, "You will not leave this ward; you will either be executed here or killed by these inmates." Recently, one inmate in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj was killed inside the ward. On July 1, Mr. Hosseinpanahi's brother also tweeted about a meeting held at the Sanandaj prosecutor's office on July 2, attended by the prosecutor, the governor, and a representative of the Revolutionary Guard, adding that their final decision was to carry out Ramin Hosseinpanahi's death sentence. Ramin Hosseinpanahi was arrested in July 2017 on charges of membership in the 'Komala Party' and 'Baghi' or armed rebellion against the Islamic government, and was sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court. His request for appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, and the sentence is currently with the Execution of Sentences Office. The Kurdistan judiciary claims that Mr. Hosseinpanahi was 'armed with a Kalashnikov, a pistol, and a grenade' at the time of his arrest and admitted to 'clashing with agents,' but his lawyer, Hossein Ahmadinejad, argues that his client did not use 'weapons' and was merely a member of the Komala Party, thus he is 'innocent.' In May of this year, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions reported that Hosseinpanahi was subjected to 'ill-treatment and torture' during detention. UN human rights experts also requested on June 18 to halt Ramin Hosseinpanahi's death sentence and called on Iranian judicial authorities to annul it altogether. They stated that there are 'legal violations' in this case, such as 'torture,' isolation, and denial of access to a lawyer and medical care. According to them, Mr. Hosseinpanahi's sentence lacks 'international standards,' which state that the death penalty should be limited only to cases of intentional murder.