Iran to Execute Kurdish Activist for ‘Enmity With God’

Posted on May 1, 2011

Flickr / theseanster93

A Kurdish man suspected of being a member of a socialist opposition party is awaiting imminent execution in Iran.

Since the beginning of 2011, Iranian authorities have executed at least 135 people, 13 of whom were publicly hanged. Last year, the country conducted more executions than any other nation except China. —ARK

The Guardian:

Fears are growing for the fate of a political activist in Iran who is facing imminent execution after being convicted of acting against national security.

Sherko Moarefi, a 31-year-old ethnic Kurd from Baneh in north-west Iran, was arrested in October 2008 on suspicion of being a member of a Kurdish opposition political party, Komala. The leftwing separatist group has been branded a terrorist organisation by Iran.

Moarefi was sentenced to death after being convicted of “acting against the national security” and moharebeh (waging war against God) – vague charges that Iran has used against many political activists in recent years.

... “Sherko is innocent. Enmity with God is a charge for those who have taken up arms against the regime but Moarefi has been a peaceful activist,” he [Khalil Bahramian, one of Moarefi’s lawyers] added.

Read more

More Below the Ad

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.