29 November 2023 :
November 29, 2023 - Ayoub Karimi executed in Karaj on November 29
A Kurdish religious prisoner
According to reports received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Ayoub Karimi, a Sunni Kurdish father of two children, was executed on Wendesday, November 29, 2023, at Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj.
Ghassem Abasteh, one of Karimi’s co-defendants, was executed in the same prison on 5 November (see HoC 05/11/2023) . Presently, the other five defendants in the case remain incarcerated and face the looming threat of execution.
In vehemently condemning the execution of Ayoub Karimi, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights asserts that this political prisoner received a death sentence through a judicial process conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran that was wholly non-transparent, unfair, and illegal.
Ayoub Karimi, implicated in the murder case of "Abdul Rahim Tina," alongside Qasim Abeste and five other Kurdish religious activists—Dawood Abdullahi, Farhad Salimi, Anwar Khezri, Khosrow Basharat, and Kamran Sheikha—received a death sentence from Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Moqiseh. The charges included "action against national security," "propaganda against the regime," "membership in Salafi groups," and "corruption on earth."
These individuals were apprehended by security forces on December 7, 2009, and subsequently transported to the intelligence agency's detention center in Urmia City.
The trial for the seven Kurdish religious prisoners took place at the end of March 2015, with the official communication of the sentences occurring on May 25, 2016. It is crucial to note that the initial verdict was overturned by the 41st branch of the Iranian Supreme Court, led by Judge Razini, in 2017. An appeal was then made to the 15th branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran. In June 2017, Ayoub Karimi and the six other co-accused received death sentences from Branch 15 of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, headed by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, on charges of "corruption on earth."
Under persistent pressure from the Iranian Intelligence Department in Urmia, the 41st branch of the Iranian Supreme Court reasserted the aforementioned verdict. On Monday, March 4, 2020, Mahmoud Walizadeh Tabatabai, the legal counsel for these seven Kurdish religious prisoners, received the official notification of this decision.
