Urmia: the political prisoner under the death sentence, Shaker Behrouz was transferred to an unknown location
29-June-2022
Category: ethnic minorities، executions
29-June-2022
Newsgroup: Execution – Ethnic Minorities –
Breathing in Confinement: On the morning of Wednesday, June 29, 2022, Shaker Behrouz, a political prisoner sentenced to death in Urmia Prison, was transferred to an unknown location. On June 25, 2022, in Urmia Prison, he was notified that his death sentence had been finalized.
According to “Breathing in Confinement”, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, on June 29, 2022, Shaker Behrouz, a political prisoner sentenced to death in Urmia Prison, was transferred to an unknown location. The Kurdish political prisoner, Shaker Behrouz was summoned to the prison guard office on the pretext of visiting his family. Instead, however, the prison officials transferred him to an unknown location.
On Saturday, June 29, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia notified this political prisoner of his finalized death sentence for “Baqi” through membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
Earlier in July 2021, Branch 31 of the Supreme Court overturned Mr. Behrouz’s death sentence which had been issued in September 2020 on charges of “Baqi,” by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court and referred the case to Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court for retrial.
Shaker Behrouz was also sentenced to death in another case in January 2021 by Branch 1 of the Urmia Criminal Court for “murdering a member of the Revolutionary Guards.” The sentence was approved by Branch 31 of the Supreme Court in Qom in October 2021.
In December 2020, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network published a report stating that seven Kurdish citizens had appeared in the First Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Urmia and testified that at the time of the murder of a Revolutionary Guards member, Shaker Behrouz had not been even present in that place. After this testimony, however, the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence unit threatened these witnesses and put pressure on them as well as on Shaker Behrouz’s family members.
After receiving a “safe conduct”, Shaker Behrouz returned to Iran from the Iraqi Kurdistan region in the fall of 2018, and reported himself to the Urmia Intelligence Office. He then was arrested and after 14 days of interrogation, was released from the detention center of this security institution.
Three months later, however, Shaker Behrouz was arrested again on February 17, 2019 by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence service on charges of “murdering a member of the Revolutionary Guards.” Mr. Behrouz was held for a year and 18 days in the detention center of this security institution located in the Al-Mahdi barracks of the Revolutionary Guards in Urmia, under interrogation and severe physical and mental torture for a forced confession.
After five months in detention, in a short session of only a few minutes, the Second Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Urmia sentenced Mr. Behrouz to five years in prison on charges of “acting against national security” through membership in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.
In a new scenario, the Revolutionary Guards accused Shaker Behrouz to “Baqi” through membership in the Komala Party, as well as the “murder” of a member of the Revolutionary Guards. Finally, the political prisoner Shaker Behrouz received death sentence for both of these cases.