Kurdish Student Activist Set to be Executed Tomorrow

Mideast Youth, Reports from Iran indicate that Habibollah Latifi, a Kurdish student activist, is set to be executed tomorrow (December 26) in Sanandaj prison. Latifi’s family and lawyer Saleh Nikbakht have requested a stay in the execution from the Sanandaj Prosecutor and a renewed review of the case and stay of execution from the Head of the Judiciary, Sadeq Larijani.

Habibollah Latifi, a Kurdish law student at Azad University and political activist was held for four months under solitary confinement undergoing harsh torture following his arrest on October 23, 2007. Nine days after his arrest Latifi was taken to the hospital with a kidney hemorrhage. A relative who spotted Latifi in the hospital said that he saw “a boy with puffed eyes, grey skin, torn lips. He was unable to stand on his feet. He was being dragged by three people while eight military and plainclothes agents were escorting them.” Latifi was beaten by six men with batons and his head was broken in three places. Following this, Latifi was able only to crawl for a month.

Latifi was tried on the charge of “acting against national security and the regime” on June 30, 2008 in a process that lasted only a few minutes in branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court. According to ICHRI, the accusations leveled against Latifi include involvement in several acoustic explosions, as well as filming and photographing them, in the city of Sanandaj. It also includes an assassination attempt on the life of the Sanandaj Prosecutor, as well as an attack on a local police station. During his trials Habibollah Latifi strongly denied involvement in any of these events.

According to CHRR, Judge Hassan Babaei presiding over the case cited verse 33 of a chapter titled Maedeh in the Qur’an, articles 1,3, and 5 of chapter 6 of a Tahrir oll-masael, a book written by Ayatollah Khomeini, and sections 183, 186, 190, and 191 of the Islamic Penal code to find Mr. Latifi guilty of Moharebeh (enmity with God), and sentenced him to death. The Court of Appeals upheld this verdict on January 29, 2009. Only a week after the case was sent to the Supreme Court in late March 2009, the appeal was denied. The case then went before the Pardoning Committee of the Supreme Court. After 10 months of secrecy, his lawyer, Dr. Nikbakht, was informed that the Committee had refused to hear the case.

Since the Judiciary informed Latifi’s lawyer of the execution on December 22, Latifi’s family and lawyer have been in a race against time to try to stop the execution. Latifi’s lawyer told ICHRI that there are several problems with the case and that Latifi’s legel team has request a re-trial and stay of execution. Elahe Latifi, Habibollah’s sister, said in an interview that “nobody from officials nor representatives have answered us. Nobody is taking responsibility, we do not know what to do.” Regarding her last visit with her brother she said that “I last visited Habib on Tuesday, at that time he was told the execution sentence for 12 individuals have been finalized and said maybe I am one of them. I told him not to even think that way because his case was heading a positive direction.” Habibollah’s niece, Sogand Ahmadzadeh, told ICHRI that “the prison telephones are cut off and this worries us more, because when they want to execute someone, they cut off the prison telephones a few days before the execution so that no one can contact outside. He usually calls on Thursdays. We don’t know whether he knows about his execution order or not, or how he’s doing.”

International human rights organizations have condemned the planned execution and called on the Iranian authorities to rescind the execution order. Amnesty International issued a statement calling for clemency to Latifi. Amnesty’s Director for Middle East and North Africa Malcolm Smart said that “it is clear that Habibollah Latifi did not receive a fair trail by international standards, which makes the news of his impending execution all the more abhorrent.” Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director Joe Stork said “as in numerous previous security cases, intelligence agents appear to have subjected Latifi to torture and a court sentenced him to death without any convincing evidence against him. The head of Iran’s judiciary should immediately rescind the execution order.”

The Kurdish militia PJAK warned Iranian authorities that if Latifi’s execution takes place, they will review their unilateral ceasefire declaration from last year. The PJAK statement said that “we will use our right to retaliate against Iran’s attacks and executions.”