Iranian authorities on Thursday executed the last surviving member of the Kurdish group arrested in 2009 and 2010 and accused of “corruption on earth” because of his alleged affiliation with extremist organizations, rights groups said. .

40-year-old Kamran Seihle was hanged in a prison in Urmia (northwest), according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The IHR described Kamran Seihle as a “political prisoner” and emphasized that he was convicted “on the basis of a confession extracted from him under torture”.

He was sentenced to death, along with six other Kurds, in 2018. He was accused of being a member of illegal movements and of being involved in the murder of a priest in Mahabad (west).

His remaining six co-accused had already been executed from November 2023 onwards.

According to Amnesty International, the seven Kurds were convicted after a “totally unfair trial”, which was marred by allegations of “torture and other forms of ill-treatment”.

Human rights organizations denounce the disproportionate use of the death penalty against the Kurdish and Baloch minorities in the western and southeastern parts of the country. In general, the members of these minorities belong to Sunni Islam and not to the Shiite sect, which is dominant in Iran.

A trade unionist, who allegedly belongs to an outlawed Kurdish party in Iran, was arrested in December and sentenced to death in early July, according to NGOs.

Iran, along with China and Saudi Arabia, is among the world’s top executioners.

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