Iran executes Kurdish prisoner who escaped to avoid coronavirus

The Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported on Tuesday that “Shayan Saeedpour was among 74 inmates who escaped Saqqez prison in Iran’s Kurdistan province on March 27 after clashing with the guards.”

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
PEOPLE STAGE a mock hanging as they protest outside the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin on February 4, 2013, where Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi was due to deliver a speech. (photo credit: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS)
PEOPLE STAGE a mock hanging as they protest outside the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin on February 4, 2013, where Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi was due to deliver a speech.
(photo credit: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS)
BERLIN: The Islamic Republic of Iran executed a second Kurdish prisoner, Shayan Saeedpour, who escaped from prison in late March in connection with the coronavirus pandemic spreading in Iranian penitentiaries.
The Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported on Tuesday that “Shayan Saeedpour was among 74 inmates who escaped Saqqez prison in Iran’s Kurdistan province on March 27 after clashing with the guards.”
Rudaw wrote “Jails across the country saw deadly riots in recent weeks among inmates fearful of contracting the coronavirus inside Iran’s overcrowded prisons. “
Iranian authorities have captured most of the prisoners. Nine prisoners are still on the run.
According to Rudaw, “Saeedpour was executed at Saqqez prison in the early hours of Tuesday morning, one of his relatives told Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights organization.”
Rudaw reported Saeedpour was sentenced to death for first degree murder and to 80 lashes for drinking alcohol. Iran’s regime alleged that he murdered Soleiman Azadi during an argument in 2015 when he 17-years-old.
“Today we managed to visit Shayan in prison, he has been taken to a solitary confinement, and they have said that they are going to execute his sentence,” Saeedpour’s father Salah told Kurdistan Human Rights Network on Monday, wrote Rudaw.
“I know that they have lost their son too, and they are still mourning. I myself handed in my son and I know he is guilty, but we need to bear in mind that he was 17 when he committed the crime,” Saeedpour’s father told the network.
The Jerusalem Post reported this month that Iran’s regime executed the Kurdish political dissident Mostafa Salimi in thte city of Saqqez.
“The death penalty is an inhumane punishment. In addition, Mostafa Salimi’s execution was against all international norms. He was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Courts lacking a fair trial and due process,” Iran Human Rights (IHR) director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.

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Iran's regime, according to an Amnesty International report released on Tuesday, conducted the second highest number (251) of executions after China in 2019.


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