Kurdish activist sentenced to death in Iran

Iranian Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi has been condemned to death on charges of armed rebellion, according to rights groups.

She is the second woman recently sentenced to death for "armed rebellion" just a month after labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi faced similar allegations.

The Hengaw Human Rights Organization, a Kurdish advocacy group, also reported that Azizi had received a four-year prison term for membership in opposition groups. Her lawyers were notified of the sentence on Tuesday.

Azizi was arrested in Tehran last year and Hengaw reported that several of her family members were also detained but released after a few days.

The court issued the death sentence for Azizi while depriving her of access to legal counsel and family visits for several months, denying her fair and transparent legal proceedings, according to the rights group.

Hengaw recently published a letter from Azizi in which she recounted enduring repeated instances of torture and hanging during her detention. Furthermore, authorities have denied her the right to meet or contact her family for the past two weeks.

Previously, Azizi was arrested in 2009 during a protest by Kurdish students at Tehran University against the execution of political prisoners. After four months in detention, she was released on bail.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the severe torture inflicted on prisoners and the coerced confessions extracted from them.

The minority Kurds in Iran have faced extensive persecution since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. According to the rights group Hengaw, at least 266 prisoners were executed across Iran during the first half of 2024 as the country's execution spree continues. Among those executed were 72 Kurds.