UN experts urge Iran to cancel Kurd’s death sentence

GENEVA, Switzerland — Three United Nations human rights experts called on Iran on Thursday to annul a death sentence handed to an Iranian Kurdish prisoner, citing concerns he had been tortured in detention.

The experts warned that executing Ramin Hossein Panahi, who they said was arrested last June for alleged membership in the Kurdish nationalist group Komala, "would be unconscionable".

In a joint statement, they said he had been "sentenced to death for taking up arms against the state" due to his alleged membership of the group.

Iran's supreme court apparently reaffirmed the death sentence earlier this month, they said, adding that his case was due to be passed to the country's office of implementation.

"We are deeply disturbed by reports that Mr Panahi has suffered human rights violations before and during his trial, including incommunicado detention, torture and ill-treatment, and denial of access to a lawyer and adequate medical care," they said.

They pointed to reports that he had been denied medical care for injuries suffered during his imprisonment, including from reported beating with cables.

He also reportedly started a hunger strike at the beginning of this year.

"The death sentence was imposed on Mr Panahi after judicial proceedings which do not appear to have fulfilled the most stringent guarantees of fair trial and due process," they said.

The experts, including the UN special rapporteur on torture and the expert on summary executions, stressed that "the only thing that distinguishes capital punishment from arbitrary execution is full respect for stringent due process guarantees".

"We urge the government of Iran to annul the death sentence."

The experts also raised concern that members of Panahi's family appeared to have been convicted in "summary trials, and sentenced to long prison terms, in apparent reprisals for their efforts to obtain further information on his situation".