Iran executes Kurdish prisoner, sparking rare protests

Heidar Ghorbani was executed on Sunday morning in Sanandaj prison in western Iran’s Kurdistan province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization said, adding that neither his family nor his lawyer had been given prior warning.

UN human rights experts had in September urged Iran to repeal his death sentence over “serious concerns” that he did not receive a fair trial and was tortured during pre-trial detention.

Amnesty International had also previously raised concerns about Ghorbani’s appearance after his arrest in a so-called documentary broadcast in 2017 by Iran’s state-run English language channel Press-TV about the killings.