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IRAN - Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi is at imminent risk of execution
April 6, 2025: April 6, 2025 - IRAN. Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi is at imminent risk of execution
After her second appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Iran Human Rights reiterates that the Pakhshan Azizi’s capital conviction and confirmation is part of the Islamic Republic’s policy of intimidation following the nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. Highlighting the sharp rise in executions in 2024, particularly the execution of women, it calls on the international community to take immediate action to stop the execution and revocation of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence.
IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence has no legal validity, and its confirmation for a second time shows that the government sees no path forward other than execution and further repression. The threat of Pakhshan’s execution is serious, and we can only prevent it by raising the political cost through public protests and international pressure.”
Kurdish political prisoner, Pakhshan Azizi’s second appeal request was rejected by the Supreme Court without considering the numerous flaws in the case.
Maziyar Tataei, Pakhshan Azizi’s lawyer, shared the news on his personal X (formerly Twitter) page, writing: “The branch of the Supreme Court handling the case rejected the second retrial request by Pakhshan Azizi’s lawyers without even requesting the trial documents and dismissed the defence arguments as baseless. Such reasoning, by the reviewing branch, necessarily requires access to the trial documents—which, unfortunately, did not happen.”
One of her other lawyers, Amir Raeesian, previously published an image of the Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the first appeal request. It revealed that the judge of Branch 39 of the Supreme Court mistakenly assumed Azizi was a member of ISIS, unaware that her work had been humanitarian and aimed at aiding those displaced by ISIS attacks.
In part of his tweet, he had written: “The rush to issue a ruling led to serious misunderstandings. While our defence focused on groups like PJAK or KJAR, the judge misread the evidence and wrongly equated KJAR with ISIS."
Pakhshan Azizi, a Mahabad native, was arrested in Tehran with her father, Aziz Azizi, her sister Parshang Azizi and her brother-in-law Hossein Abbasi on 4 August 2023. Pakhshan Azizi was held in the IRGC’s Ward 209 in Evin Prison for five months following her arrest and banned from visitation rights in that period, including visits with her lawyers. She was subsequently transferred to the Women’s Ward of Evin Prison.
Her trial took place on 16 and 17 June 2024. Pakhshan was sentenced to death for charges of “baghy (armed rebellion) through membership in armed opposition groups” by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Afshari. Her lawyers were notified of the judgement on 23 July. Her sentence was upheld by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court in early January.
Pakhshan Azizi had previously been arrested in 2009 for political activities and was released on bail after four months. On her case see also HoC 05/04/2024; 23/07/2024; 19/08/2024; 09/09/2024; 27/10/2024; 11/11/2024; 12/11/2024; 21/11/2024; 11/01/2025; 14/01/2025; 22/01/2025; 23/01/2025; 29/01/2025; 06/02/2025; 11/02/2025; 07/03/2025; 03/04/2025.
https://iranhr.net/en/articles/7446/
https://www.en-hrana.org/for-the-second-time-pakhshan-azizis-request-for-retrial-rejected-by-the-supreme-court/
https://hengaw.net/en/news/2025/04/article-14 (Source: IHR)
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