Humanitarian worker and civil society activist Pakhshan Azizi, from Iran’s oppressed Kurdish ethnic minority, is at risk of execution following a grossly unfair trial by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran. In July 2024, she was sentenced to death solely in relation to her peaceful humanitarian and human rights activities, including assisting displaced women and children in north-east Syria. Her allegations of torture and other ill-treatment were never investigated.
Demand Iranian authorities immediately release Pakhshan and halt any plans to execute her!
In August 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents arbitrarily arrested Pakhshan from her family home in Tehran and subjected to her an enforced disappearance, a crime under international law, by refusing to disclose her whereabouts to her family. Agents transferred her Tehran’s Evin prison, and held her in prolonged solitary confinement for five months without access to a lawyer and her family.
According to informed sources, during this time Pakhshan was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations. They also subjected her to gender-based violence in order to compel her to make forced “confessions” of having ties to Kurdish opposition groups, which she repeatedly denied. In early December 2023, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin prison.
Pakhshan’s trial was grossly unfair. She was denied adequate time and facilities to prepare her defence. She was only permitted a few phone calls with her chosen lawyers about three weeks before her trial commenced and met with them for the first time at trial. The court verdict includes Azizi’s arrest in 2009 at a protest against the execution of an Iranian Kurdish man as “evidence” against her. The verdict also states that she supported families of those unlawfully killed during 2022 nationwide protests.
Take Urgent Action now call on authorities to halt any plans to execute Pakhshan Azizi, quash her conviction and death sentence and release her immediately and unconditionally!
Pending her release, authorities must provide her with adequate healthcare and regular visits from family and lawyers; protect her from further torture and other ill-treatment; and order an independent, effective and impartial investigation into her torture allegations, bringing anyone suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.