Hundreds of Civil and Labor Activists Demand Immediate Cancellation of Pakhshan Azizi's Death Sentence

More than 300 activists from women's rights, workers, teachers, and retirees have launched a campaign demanding the immediate cancellation of the death sentence for Pakhshan Azizi, a political prisoner held in Evin Prison. According to the human rights organization 'Hengaw', they emphasized the need to revoke Ms. Azizi's death sentence by signing a petition, stating that she was 'arrested and sentenced to death for her voluntary and humanitarian activities among the victims of the ISIS war.' The signatories pointed to statements from the lawyers of this civil activist and imprisoned journalist regarding the 'hasty handling' of her case in the Supreme Court, deeming the risk of execution for Pakhshan Azizi serious. They stressed: 'We demand the immediate cancellation of Pakhshan Azizi's death sentence and call on everyone to raise their voices to save her life.' Among the signatories of the petition are Ahmad Zahedi Langeroudi, Ismail Abdi, Ismail Niazi, Azam Daneshvar, Akram Nasirian, Alborz Irani, Elham Rasouli, Amir Chamani, Parviz Elahiari, Parvin Mohammadi, Pouran Nazemi, Jamileh Mosaddegh, Javanmir Moradi, Hassan Saidi, Khosrow Sadeqi Boroujeni, Raheleh Ahmadi, Rada Mardani, Reza Khandan Mohabadi, Rezvaneh Khan Beigi, Zhila Makvandi, and Sara Siyahpour. Sorin (Eskandar) Lotfi, Soheil Arabi, Shahnaz Akmali, Aliyeh Eghdam Doost, Aliyeh Matlabzadeh, Abdollah Momeni, Fatemeh Mojtabai, Fakhri Shadfar, Farah Ramazani, Farzaneh Barzakar, Farangis Mazloom, Kamabiz Nourouzadeh, Keyvan Mohtadi, Mahbubeh Rezaei, Mahbubeh Farahzadi, Mohsen Ghanbari, Mohammad Karim Beigi, Mohammad Mahdi Shahbazi Fard, Masoud Nikkhah, Manzar Zarabi, Nahid Shaghaghi, Narges Zarifian, Nasim Soltanbeigi, Nasrat Beheshti, Niloufar Kazemi, and Hyrad Pirbadaghi are among the activists who signed this petition. Hengaw noted that Pakhshan Azizi has spent over 155 days deprived of visits from her family and lawyers in Evin Prison. Until late October, she was also deprived of the right to make phone calls. Recently, Amir Reisi and Maziar Tataei, Pakhshan Azizi's lawyers, in a conversation with the Telegram channel 'Emtedad', reported hearing 'unpleasant news' about the possibility of acquittal from the charge of 'baghi' and the death penalty for Pakhshan Azizi, and mentioned the likelihood of haste and disregard for the submitted documents in the Supreme Court. This civil activist was sentenced to death on June 14 of this year for 'baghi'. She later faced another case in the third branch of the Evin Prosecutor's Office under the title 'chaos in prison' and was also sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment. She was arrested on August 4 of last year by the forces of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence in the Kharazi neighborhood of Tehran. This journalist was transferred from Ward 209 of Evin Prison, known as the Intelligence Department detention center, to the women's section of Evin Prison on December 20, 2023. According to Hengaw, she was 'arrested on November 25, 2009, during a protest by Kurdish students at Tehran University against the execution of political prisoners in Kurdistan, and was eventually released on March 18 of the same year after 4 months of detention upon posting a bail of 100 million tomans.' This human rights organization also reported that Pakhshan Azizi later left Iran due to continuous pressure and threats from security agencies and conducted research on the status of women in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Syrian Kurdistan, taking actions in the form of social work to improve this situation. In recent years, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran has sentenced a number of civil and political activists, as well as detainees from recent protests in Iran, to death. Among these activists and detainees are Vrisheh Moradi, Akbar Daneshvar Kar, Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Qabadi, Vahid Bani-Amirian, Abolhasan Montazeri, Ahmad Reza Jalali, Behrouz Ehsani Islamloo, Mehdi Hasani, Mohammad Javad Vafaee Sani, Abbas Daris, Ali Majdam, Moein Khonfari, Mohammad Reza Moghadam, and Adnan Ghabishavi (Mousavi) who have received death sentences. The issuance of death sentences has provoked protests from many human rights organizations and several countries around the world.