Five Kurdish men sentenced to death over 2022 protests, rights group says
Five Kurdish men detained during the 2022 protests in Iran have been sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in the city of Urmia, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said on Monday.
According to the group, the five men — identified as Ali Ghasemi, Pejman Soltani, Kaveh Salehi, Rezgar Beikzadeh Babamiri and Tifur Salimi Babamiri — were arrested for participating in demonstrations in the cities of Bukan and Baneh during the Women, Life, Freedom protests, ignited over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody.
The rights group said eight others linked to the same case have received prison terms and fines.
KHRN alleged the court’s verdicts were based solely on intelligence ministry reports and confessions extracted during detention, with no independent or corroborating evidence presented during trial.
The group said the defendants were detained in April and May 2023 and held at the Urmia intelligence detention facility, where they were denied legal representation for much of the pre-trial process.
