The authorities of Sanandaj Central Prison temporarily halted the execution of a Kurdish death row prisoner on 23 May after his family members and human rights activists held a protest outside the prison.
The Kurdish death row prisoner, Hemen Mostafaei, 27, was taken to the prison’s solitary confinement cells in preparation for his execution, but the prison authorities agreed to the demand of his family members and rights activists to temporarily halt his execution after they protested for several hours outside the prison gates.
Ebrahim Mohammadi
Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has obtained more information on the prisoner’s case following interviews with several reliable sources based inside Iran.
An unknown person killed retired member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Ebrahim Mohamadi, also known as Bileh Qarachi, a Kurd, at his private garden, on 7 March 2013, according to the information KRHN obtained from the local sources.
He was killed at his private garden in the village of Sorkheh Dezaj of Arandan Rural District, located in the Central District of Sanandaj County of Kurdistan Province.
News websites close to Iran’s intelligence ministry and IRGC said that the Kurdish Komala Party had murdered the retired IRGC member, but neither Komala nor any other Kurdish political party claimed responsibility
The deputy coordinator of the Beitolmoghadas Army in Sanandaj, Ebrahim Hosseini, said in a Regional Planning Council meeting on 8 March 2013 that they had identified and arrested the suspected murderer.
One of the local sources who gave an interview to the KHRN said that the suspected murderer later identified as Hemen Mostafaei, came from the village of Kani Dinar village in Marivan, and that he was arrested by officers of the intelligence ministry four days after the murder on 11 March 2013 in the city of Marivan.
He was taken to the detention centre of the intelligence ministry in the city of Sanandaj after his arrest, the sources said.
Mostafaei had later faced harsh torture during interrogation and later admitted to the killing of the retired IRGC member.
He had agreed to make a televised confession on the state-owned Press TV after officers of the intelligence ministry threatened him and his interrogators later prepared the TV script for him.
According to one of the sources, three other Marivan locals Bian Kakei, Hiwa Dadafarin and Khalil Shirzadi, were also arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder.
Press TV broadcasted a documentary entitled: “The Common Target”, which showed forced confessions of the four detainees.
The Common Target by
PressTV Documentaries
The source said that Mostafaei was a member of a Kurdish Party for a very short time before his arrest and that he had returned to Marivan in coordination with Iran’s intelligence ministry after he had expressed his remorse for having joined the Kurdish opposition party.
The source said that Mostafaei’s previous political involvement had led the office of the intelligence ministry in Marivan and Sanandaj cities to declare that political motives were behind the targeting of the retired IRGC member.
The source said it was not unprecedented for the security forces in Iran’s Kurdistan region to use such cases to publicise false claims against Kurdish political parties.
The source added that the Penal Court of Sanandaj sentenced Mostafaei to death for murder and four years in prison on charges of possession of weapons, although the intelligence ministry and the IRGC had demanded that the court sentences him to death on charges of Moharebeh (enmity against God).
Gathering outside the prison gates.
