Kurdish citizens

This page keeps the memory of Kurdish citizens who were executed or killed, and the names of those who are still facing a death sentence. This list contains 173 names; its earliest date is 20 Aban 1388 and its latest 18 Aban 1404. Only those whose source has explicitly stated their ethnicity as Kurdish appear on this page. In many reports ethnicity is not mentioned, so there are many more Kurdish citizens in our overall list who are not seen on this page.

Fates

Of these 173 people, 54 were executed. 67 people were killed by government forces outside of protests, 16 people lost their lives in detention and 16 people were killed in protests. The number of those still facing execution is striking on this page: 9 people have been sentenced to death, 7 people are at risk of the execution of a death sentence, and the death sentence of 4 people has been upheld. The median age is 29 years and the oldest person was 54 years old. 3 people were under 18 years of age, and there are 22 women in this list.

Urmia with 31 names is the most frequent city, followed by Karaj with 18, Tehran with 11, Mahabad with 8, Sanandaj with 7 and Kermanshah with 5 names; Baneh, Saqqez, Bukan, Eslamabad and Kamyaran are also in the list. West Azerbaijan with 43 names is at the top of the provinces, followed by Alborz with 18 and Kurdistan with 15 names. The year 1394 with 35 names is the heaviest year, followed by 1401 with 23 and 1403 with 22 names. The days 8 Azar 1402 and 9 Bahman 1402, each with 4 names, are the heaviest days in this list, and 17 Shahrivar 1397 with 3 names is among them.

Three people on one morning

On the morning of 17 Shahrivar 1397, three Kurdish men were hanged in Evin Prison: Ramin Hossein Panahi, Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi. Ramin was 25 years old and had 3 sisters and 5 brothers. The source calls him “a freedom-loving, peace-seeking young man with great ideals” and writes that he “believed in women's rights.” An account of his trial says: “In the presence of the judges, the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and the representative of the prosecutor, I asked Ramin: do you have a problem? He said yes. I have been tortured.” His body was not handed over to the family and was buried in an unknown place. Zanyar Moradi, 30 years old, considered his case political and had repeatedly asked for a fair trial. Loghman Moradi, 35 years old, who had been the breadwinner of his family since adolescence, according to the source had good relations with prisoners “of every way of thinking and nationality.”

Some other lives

Hossein Khezri, 28 years old, had worked in a carpet-weaving workshop to help his family. His brother considered him “a well-behaved, good-natured and pleasant person.” He was executed on 25 Dey 1389 in Urmia, and his family heard the news from state television. Farzad Kamangar, 35 years old, was a teacher in Kamyaran for twelve years, and in the last days of his life wrote a letter titled “Be strong, comrade” to imprisoned teachers; he was executed on 19 Ordibehesht 1389 in Evin. Saro Ghahremani, 24 years old, who was engaged, lost his life in Dey 1396 in a detention centre in Sanandaj. Zanyar Allahmoradi, 25 years old, a student of an associate degree in electrical engineering and a construction worker, was shot dead in Aban 1401 in Abbasabad, Sanandaj.

About this list

The list of Kurdish citizens is not complete. The real number of Kurds who lost their lives is higher, and the names of many of them were never published; we list only a name that has a source. The largest share of these 173 names comes from the Kurdistan Human Rights Network with 220 cases; followed by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (English-language) with 82, the Iran Human Rights Society with 54, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with 27 and Persian Wikipedia with 23 cases. Every name has at least one source, and some only one. For 32 people a description of their life is available. If you knew one of these 173 people, or have recent news about the situation of those at risk of execution, share it with us.