Campaign to revoke Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence gains momentum
Hengaw:Thursday, December 12, 2024
More than 300 activists advocating for women’s rights, workers, teachers, and retirees in Iran have launched a campaign urging the immediate revocation of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence. Azizi, a Kurdish political prisoner, was sentenced to death by the judiciary of Islamic Republic of Iran earlier this year.
According to reports received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, activists from diverse social and professional sectors have signed a petition calling for Azizi’s death sentence to be overturned. The petition asserts that she was “arrested and sentenced to death on charges of rebellion (baghi) solely for her voluntary and humanitarian activities among the refugees of the ISIS war.”
The signatories criticized the rapid judicial process in Azizi’s case, as highlighted by her legal defense team, and warned of the urgent risk of her execution. In their appeal, they wrote: “We, the undersigned, demand the immediate revocation of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence and urge everyone to unite in saving her life.”
Azizi, detained in Evin Prison for over 155 days, has been denied family visits and legal counsel throughout her imprisonment. Until late October, she was also deprived of the right to phone calls.
Her lawyers, Amir Raeesian and Maziar Tatari, recently expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of overturning the rebellion charge and avoiding the death penalty. However, they warned against hasty judicial proceedings that might ignore critical evidence submitted to the Supreme Court.
Azizi’s death sentence, handed down on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, on charges of rebellion, was followed by an additional six-month prison sentence for “prison riots” stemming from a case in Branch 3 of Evin Prison’s Prosecutor’s Office.
Arrested on August 4, 2023, in Tehran’s Kharazi Township by Ministry of Intelligence forces, Azizi was held in Ward 209 of Evin Prison before being transferred to the women’s ward on December 11, 2023.
Azizi’s activism dates back to her arrest on November 16, 2009, during a Kurdish student protest at the University of Tehran against the execution of Kurdish political prisoners. Released on bail after four months of detention, she later left Iran due to ongoing threats and pressure from security agencies. While abroad, Azizi conducted research on women’s rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) and worked on improving conditions for vulnerable populations through social initiatives.
