Human Rights Defenders Support Families of Four Executed Political Prisoners in Complaint to UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances

The Human Rights Defenders Center has supported the formal complaint of the families of four political prisoners executed last year to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances. The wives of Mohsen Mazloom, Mohammad Faramerzi, Vafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fathi, Kurdish political prisoners who were executed on January 29 of last year, announced on October 1 that they have filed a complaint against the Islamic Republic of Iran with the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances. This group was established about 44 years ago and its main task is to assist families in determining the fate or whereabouts of their family members who have reportedly disappeared. Joanna Timsi, Maria Mahmoudi, Golestan Arzhangi, and Bayan Azimi stated: 'We, the grieving families, will pursue all available international and national legal mechanisms, no matter how complex and difficult, in our quest for justice' and emphasized that they want to be 'the loud voice of justice-seeking' against the Islamic Republic of Iran. They said, 'Our intention is to hold the Islamic Republic accountable for the extrajudicial execution and the enforced disappearance of the bodies and graves of our loved ones.' Mohsen Mazloom, Mohammad Faramerzi, Vafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fathi, four Kurdish political prisoners, were executed at dawn on January 29 of last year in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj despite widespread international protests and significant requests within Iran. They were members of the Komala Party of Kurdistan, arrested in 2022 in Urmia, and accused of 'espionage for Israel,' an accusation that was strongly denied by the four. Their lawyer also protested the 'unfair trial process' regarding these charges. Despite promises made by security and judicial officials of the Islamic Republic to transfer their bodies to Kurdistan and deliver them to their families after the execution of Pejman Fathi, Mohsen Mazloom, Mohammad Faramerzi, and Vafa Azarbar, they have refrained from doing so and have not informed their families of their burial locations. The Human Rights Defenders Center emphasized that 'the failure to deliver the bodies to the victims' families inflicts a degree of mental, psychological, and anxiety suffering on the family that, according to the theories of international human rights organizations, can constitute torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment.' This human rights organization called for 'the torture of the surviving families to end.' Meanwhile, Maria Mahmoudi, the wife of Mohammad Faramerzi, one of the four executed political prisoners, stated in a message: 'Friends and freedom-loving people of the world, organizations and human rights activists, we have risen today to seek justice and request the support of each one of you in this struggle to bring the Islamic Republic to trial.' The wife of Vafa Azarbar called for public support to retrieve the body of her husband and the three other Kurdish prisoners. Mahmoud Amiri Moghadam stated: 'The Islamic Republic seeks more terror through public executions.' 'No to Executions Tuesdays': With the increasing crisis in the region, the number of executions is rising. Support from 9 Nobel Peace Prize winners for the 'No to Executions Tuesdays' campaign.