Statement by 100 Activists Condemning the Deaths of Kurdish Political Prisoners

Following the deaths of several political prisoners in recent days, one hundred political, civil, and human rights activists from Kurdistan issued a statement demanding accountability from responsible authorities. The signatories of this statement highlighted the 'arbitrary arrests' and 'deaths of some Kurdish political prisoners in prisons,' indicating serious concerns among the families of the prisoners and public opinion. In recent days, at least the bodies of two Kurdish political prisoners named Peyman Golvani, a 24-year-old citizen from Mahabad, and Moussa Esmaeili, a 35-year-old citizen from a village near Piranshahr, were handed over to their families by security agencies in Urmia. According to human rights sources, Peyman Golvani was accused of 'membership in one of the Kurdish opposition parties.' The families of these political prisoners and human rights activists, pointing to signs of torture on their bodies, have deemed the deaths of these two Kurdish prisoners as a result of torture and referred to it as 'governmental murder.' Government agencies have denied these accusations, stating that Peyman Golvani's death was due to an underlying illness and claiming that Moussa Esmaeili was killed during an armed confrontation with Iranian government forces. The statement from political, civil, and human rights activists from Kurdistan emphasized that the legal responsibility for protecting the lives of political prisoners 'lies with judicial officers and related security agencies,' and any 'delay or negligence' would exacerbate public sensitivity on this matter. The signatories of this statement called for 'transparency and accountability from the responsible authorities regarding these deaths.' According to Hengaw, at least 20 prisoners have died in Iranian government prisons in the first six months of this year, 13 of whom were Kurdish. Timour Elyasi, a representative of the Kurdish Human Rights Association, recently stated in an interview with Voice of America that the Iranian government executes ethnic minorities whenever it feels threatened.