Urmia

This page is dedicated to 647 people whose names appear in our list with a source and with the city of Urmia. In this list Urmia is above all the city of its central prison: 553 of these names belong to those executed. 21 people lost their lives in detention, 11 people were killed in protests, 10 people were killed by government forces outside of protests and 2 people died in suspicious circumstances. 33 people are at risk of the execution of a death sentence, 12 people have been sentenced to death and the sentence of 5 people has been upheld. The earliest date on this page is 31 Farvardin 1388 and the latest 11 Mehr 1405.

Years and days

The names from Urmia can be seen in all the years of this period. The heaviest years are 1395 and 1393 with 79 names each; they are followed by 1394 with 59 names. The year 1392 has 54 names, the year 1396 51 names, and the year 1401 44 names. From 1388 one name has been recorded, from 1389 25 names, from 1390 27 names and from 1404 16 names.

No day in Urmia has a very high number, but several days recur: 1 Bahman 1393 with 9 names, and 9 Esfand 1389, 11 Khordad 1391, 31 Farvardin 1395 and 8 Mehr 1395 with 8 names each. These are days on each of which several people were executed together in Urmia. The youngest person on this page was 16 years old and the oldest 70, and the median of the ages is 30 years. 7 people were under 18 years of age, and there are 62 women in the list for Urmia whose source stated that they were women.

Dawn of 8 Mehr 1395

Molouk Nouri, 55 years old, according to the source had agreed in 1390, out of poverty and in return for five hundred thousand tomans, to carry a package of drugs to Urmia. She had no money to hire a lawyer, and because of the long distance and her family's poverty she was deprived of visits. Her family reached the prison for the last visit when she had already been executed. Esmail Ayoubi Jermi, 41 years old, father of 5 children, who according to the source “was a patient and kind person,” was executed on the same morning. Both were hanged together with seven others in Urmia Central Prison, known as Darya.

Some other lives

Hossein Khezri, 28 years old, had gone to work in a carpet-weaving workshop after the third year of middle school to help his family, and according to his lawyer lost 70 percent of his eyesight there. He was secretly executed on 25 Dey 1389 in Urmia Prison, and his family heard the news from television. His burial place also remained hidden.

Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran was 15 years old when she married, and according to the source she was repeatedly abused by her husband. The child she gave birth to in prison was stillborn on 9 Mehr 1395. She was executed on 10 Mehr 1397, at the age of 24, without her lawyer being informed. One account says that she “had taken the blame for this killing in place of someone else and never thought she would be caught in such a situation.”

Darvish Monazzami (Golgani), 60 years old, a farmer and the driver of the village minibus, had suffered from a mental illness since about the age of 45. On the day before his execution his family had been told that he would probably be eligible for a reduction of sentence; he was executed on the morning of 12 Aban 1395. Rasoul Ahmadrasoul, 44 years old, a citizen of Iraq and father of three children, had come to Iran to collect money owed to him, and was executed on 4 Tir 1404 in Urmia Prison. He has been quoted as saying: “I did not know they were going to accuse me of murder and terrorism.”

About the sources and the incompleteness of this list

These 647 names are not all of those who were executed or killed in Urmia. The real number is higher, and many of the executions in Urmia Prison were reported without names; we record only a name that has a source. The largest share of the sources for this page is held by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with 429 cases and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 418 cases; followed by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (English-language) with 111 and the Iran Human Rights Society with 74 cases. Every name has at least one source, but some only one. For 47 people a description of their life is available. If you knew one of the names from Urmia, send us your memory or correction.