Call for International Sanctions and Prosecution of Judges Issuing Death Sentences for Four Kurdish Political Prisoners

A group of activists under the title "Campaign for Justice for Four Kurdish Political Prisoners on Death Row" has called for the imposition of "human rights sanctions" and "international prosecution of the judges of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic". This group states that "Ghasem Mazinani, head of the 9th branch of the Supreme Court", "Mostafa Barzegar Ganjii, deputy of the 9th branch of the Supreme Court", and "Iman Afshari, head of the 26th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran" should be sanctioned and prosecuted for the execution of four Kurdish political prisoners. According to campaign members, these judges were involved in the execution of Vafa Azarbar, Mohsen Maloum, Mohammad Faramerzi, and Pejman Fatahi and should be prosecuted within the "jurisdiction of the European Union" based on what they call the "principle of universal jurisdiction". One judicial official of the Islamic Republic, Hamid Nouri, was arrested on November 9, 2019, upon arriving at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, Sweden, based on the principle of "universal jurisdiction" and later received a life sentence, but Sweden eventually released him in a swap for a Swedish hostage taken in Iran. Mohsen Maloum, Mohammad Faramerzi, Vafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fatahi, four Kurdish political prisoners, were executed at dawn on January 29 of last year in Qazalhesar Prison in Karaj despite widespread international protests and many requests from within Iran. They were members of the Komala Party of Kurdistan, arrested in 2022 in Urmia and accused of "spying for Israel", an accusation strongly denied by the four. Their lawyer also protested the "unfair trial process" regarding these charges. The wife of Vafa Azarbar has called for public support to retrieve the body of her husband and the three other Kurdish prisoners. The Human Rights Defenders Association supports the complaint of the families of the four executed political prisoners to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Families of several executed individuals in Iran have complained to the United Nations. Some members of the German Parliament have called for pressure on the Islamic Republic to end executions in Iran.