Varisheh Moradi, Kurdish political prisoner, sentenced to death

Hengaw: Sunday, November 10, 2023 

 Varisheh Moradi, a Kurdish political activist, women’s rights advocate, and member of the Free Women’s Society of East Kurdistan (KJAR), has been sentenced to death by Iran’s judicial system on charges of “armed rebellion.” Recently, in protest of the death sentences issued to activists, she went on a hunger strike that lasted 20 days. 

 According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Varisheh Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner from Sanandaj, currently imprisoned in Evin Prison, was sentenced to death by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran persisted over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati. She was charged with “armed rebellion” due to her affiliation with the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and her death sentence was officially communicated to her lawyers on Sunday, November 10, 2024. 

 Notably, the final session addressing the charges against Varisheh Moradi took place on October 6, 2024, during which her lawyers were denied access to her case file. They were also barred from reviewing her file in both the initial (June 17) and second sessions, and Moradi herself was not allowed to defend herself in court. 

 On Thursday, October 10, 2024, coinciding with the “World Day Against the Death Penalty,” Varisheh Moradi began a 20-day hunger strike in protest of the issuance and enforcement of death sentences by the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

 Moradi was recently sentenced to an additional six months of imprisonment by the Criminal Court 2 of the Qods Judicial Complex in Tehran, presided over by Judge Abolfazl Ameri Shahabi, in a joint case alongside four other political prisoners held in Evin Prison. 

 On Tuesday, December 26, 2023, after five months of solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence, she was transferred to the women’s ward. In late August 2023, following interrogation and torture at the Sanandaj Intelligence Department’s detention center, she was transferred to Ward 209 of Evin. 

 On August 1, 2023, as she was traveling from Marivan to Sanandaj, she was abducted by the Intelligence security forces. During this abduction, she was severely beaten and transferred to the detention facility without any medical attention. 

 Hengaw had previously reported that Moradi faced such extreme torture in the Sanandaj Intelligence Department’s detention center that she once vomited blood and lost consciousness entirely.