RAHANA-Zeynad Jalalian may be in imminent danger of execution. Her precise status is unknown because authorities have held her incommunicado and prevented her from retaining a lawyer.

Khalil Bahramian, a lawyer who represented Farzad Kamangar, one of four Kurdish dissidents executed without warning in May, explained that his efforts to represent Jalalian have been rebuffed by the government and that he is not certain where she is being held. Some media reports say she may be in Section 209 of Evin Prison, administered by the Intelligence Ministry.

According to RAHANA, Joe Stork The Middle East Director of Human Rights Watch said: “It is absolutely inconceivable that a woman who has been in detention for more than a year and is in danger of imminent execution has still not been granted access to a lawyer. Facing death, she is denied even her most basic rights.”

Iran is in violation of both its own constitution and international law in denying Jalalian a lawyer, Human Rights Watch said.

Iran’s Supreme Court confirmed Jalalian’s death sentence in November 2009. The government charged Jalalian with the crime of moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” in connection with her alleged membership in the outlawed Free Life Party of Kurdistan, or PJAK. The party is widely regarded by analysts to be an Iranian affiliate of the banned Turkish Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK. In May 2010, Human Rights Watch called for a moratorium on all executions and noted that Jalalian was among 17 Kurdish dissidents awaiting execution.

The 16 other Kurds facing execution are: Rostam Arkia, Hossein Khezri, Anvar Rostami, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader Mohammadzadeh, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Tali, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkhani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, and Aziz Mohammadzadeh.

share this on social networks: