Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS) The Three Amigos
Posted on 06/22/2018 6:46:37 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
IRBIL, IRAQ —
A brother of an Iranian Kurdish man sentenced to death for belonging to a Kurdish nationalist group says the dissident has told a lawyer that he has hours to live after being transferred back to death row.
Speaking exclusively to VOA Persian on Thursday, Amjad Hossein Panahi said his detained brother Ramin Hossein Panahi was moved to death row at a prison in the northwestern city of Sanandaj in the past day. Amjad Panahi, who is based in Germany, said Ramin met with defense lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz on Thursday and told the lawyer that he expected to be executed within hours. Amjad Panahi said he learned of the meeting from Ahmadiniaz who, he said, described it as the final one with Ramin.
Amjad Panahi said prison authorities told family members in Sanandaj that they intended to execute Ramin ahead of the first anniversary his arrest, June 23, 2017. VOA Persian could not independently verify that purported message from the prison.
Amjad Panahi also posted a video on his Twitter account Thursday, showing his parents speaking at their home and expressing despair about Ramin’s plight. In the video, verified by VOA Persian, the father said Iranian authorities recently took him to an unknown location and pressured him to make critical comments about his son Ramin as part of a video recording.<
In the Twitter video, the father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, said he did not mean to malign his son.
“I’m old and miserable and did not understand what was going on,” he said. “We are waiting for our son, please help us.”
There was no immediate sign on the Internet of the purported second video that the father said the authorities had filmed.
Residents of Sanandaj sent VOA Persian images showing a heavier-than-usual security presence in the streets Wednesday and Thursday. Authorities at the city’s prison granted Ramin Panahi a reprieve from execution last month, taking him off death row after Iranian and international rights activists intensified a social media campaign for annulling his death sentence. But many of the activists said they feared Iran was delaying an execution until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ended last week.
Arrested in 2017
Panahi was arrested in June last year for belonging to Kurdish nationalist group Komala and allegedly drawing a weapon against Iranian security forces who were carrying out a raid in the region. He was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary court in January.
Amjad Panahi said his detained brother’s lawyer Ahmadiniaz told him on Thursday that Ramin denied harming any members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has expressed concern about allegations that Panahi did not receive a fair trial and that authorities mistreated and tortured him in detention.
The death penalty for criticizing government is a very evil act.
In 2009 the Mullahs stole the election. Everyone in Iran knew it. Many demonstrated in the streets and eventually the military put that down. There were many, especially young people, who were arrested and never heard from again.
I've been told the that mullahs have executed 10,000 people since they took power.
Now, Iran is in serious financial trouble and there is again talk of rebellion. It is clear the Mullahs are very unpopular among Iranians.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.........................
Obama and John Kerry’s friends at work here. . . .
No military please. Just disturb the excrement.
The Iranian thugs and goons that terrorize the people on behalf of the mullahs demand their pay in hard currency. Just remember those pallets of cash Obama sent the mullahs when this man is hanged
Yes, I’m aware. And I will remember.
Absolutely
And obama did nothing to help the freedom riots there...and they were crushed.
Yes, I remember.
I remember when the young people and their cell phones were bypassing the censorship with the help of “haystack” software from a developer in Roundrock area. The Mullahs hired foreign software engineers and neutralized the masking of the GPS info in cell phones, tracked them down and put them in jail.
It is a very sad thing to look at my Twitter timeline for 2009 during #IranElection phase. Many of the accounts are grayed out, indicating no longer active.
Heard over 2,000 young people were arrested. Possibly 1/2 never heard from again.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS) The Three Amigos
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