Iranian authorities announced on Wednesday that they had executed a young Kurdish activist convicted of murdering a police officer, a move condemned by human rights groups as a “political prisoner”.

“Aras Ahmadi, also known as Sarkot, a member of the Komala terrorist organization, was executed this morning,” state television reported.

The 29-year-old was accused of murdering a police officer in August 2018 in Ravansar, a city in Kermanshah province (west).

State television broadcast footage it presented as the defendant’s confession.

Such videos are, however, denounced by human rights organizations, which emphasize that the alleged confessions of the accused are forced and often extracted with torture.

Iranian human rights NGOs based abroad noted that the young man had been arrested in early 2021 as he tried to flee to Europe after being convicted of murder. He denied this accusation from the beginning.

Aras Ahmadi was hanged yesterday morning in Kermanshah prison, according to separate announcements by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), Hengaw, which fights to defend the rights of Iran’s Kurds, and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. based in France.

His execution was carried out secretly, according to the same organizations.

The activist, they clarified, was a member of the Kurdish Komala party, which has been outlawed and designated a terrorist organization by Tehran. The faction claims the autonomy of the areas where the Kurds live in Iran.

He had lived in Iraq, where Komala’s leadership is based, before returning to Iran, according to the same sources.

“The execution of the Kurdish political prisoner took place without warning his family and without allowing them to see him for the last time,” according to IHR.

“Torture”

The Network for Human Rights in Kurdistan emphasized, citing people close to him, that Aras Ahmadi was “tortured to admit his guilt to the charges against him” and “made a forced confession.”

According to Amnesty International and other NGOs, Iran ranks second in the world for the use of the death penalty, behind only China.

Tehran has been accused of using the death penalty as a tool to quell protests that followed the September 16 death at the hands of morals police of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, Makhsa Amini.

Four men have so far been executed for “crimes” that authorities say were committed during the anti-government protests.

According to the IHR, 87 people have already been executed in the Islamic Republic since the beginning of this year.

Amnesty said Wednesday that Iranian authorities have “disappeared” four Kurdish dissidents linked to Komala and are at “serious risk” of anything less than fair trials on charges that carry the death penalty.

They were arrested in July 2022; they face charges of espionage and terrorism.

Amnesty International accused Iran of “depriving their families and lawyers of information about their fate and whereabouts since their arrest”.