Campaign to save Kurd scholar from execution in Iran

Militants have launched a human rights campaign to save the life of the Kurdish scholar Shahram Ahmadi who was sentenced to death in Iran.

The Office of the Supreme Judiciary in Iran confirmed the death sentence issued by the Revolutionary Court against Ahmadi in 2012, after a trial which did not take minutes.

According to Iranian human rights group, Ahmadi has been sentenced to death in Iran due to his activism as a Sunni Muslim and a Kurd.

It added that members of ethnic or religious minorities in Iran who engage in criticism of the government are singled out by authorities for particularly harsh treatment.

“Making speeches, distributing books and pamphlets, or opposing the government are not capital offenses. Unfortunately, Judge Moghisseh said that Shahram’s first two crimes are that he’s a Sunni and a Kurd. Therefore, he was presumed guilty from the start,” a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Ahmadi, 41, was shot and wounded during his arrest by intelligence agents on April 26, 2009, an event that coincided with supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s visit to Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province, according to the group.