Iran has executed 44 Kurds in past six months, a report says.
According to a report published by a news agency (Kurdistan 24), in the past six months, Iran has hanged over 40 Iranian Kurds and sentenced just under a dozen other activists to death.
“The death sentences of 44 Kurdish citizens have been implemented in nine prisons” in the country, most of which were in “Urmia, Kermanshah and Karaj,” a statement by the human rights organization Hengaw reported.
The human rights group Hengaw said that, in addition to those already executed, 11 other political activists have also been put on death row.
Recent cases that garnered international attention were that of Ramin Hussein Panahi and two cousins Loghman and Zaniar Moradi who were executed on 8th September.
On the same day that all three were put to death, Iran carried out a cross-border missile attack on the headquarters of two Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilati) parties opposing the Islamic Regime in the Kurdistan Region’s town of Koya, reportedly killing 15 people and injuring 42 others.
The two incidents inspired an organized general strike of shopkeepers and business-owners in the four Rojhilati provinces of Iran. On Sep. 12, the streets of Kurdish cities were deserted as locals attempted to show their solidarity with the families of the victims and their opposition to the regime’s actions.
According to Amnesty International, among the 23 countries that carried out death sentences in 2017, “Iran executed at least 507 people.” At least 31 of those executions were public and at least five of those executed were under 18 years old.