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KurdistanObserver.com
Kurdish Prisoners Revolt Over Inmate Hangings
Tehran, 30 Dec. (AKI) - Amid rising tension in
Iranian Kurdistan, prisoners in Urumieh prison in western Iran are rioting
over the imminent hanging of one of their fellow detainees - a Kurd named
Massoud Shokkehi - and the hanging in recent days of another Kurd being held
in Sagghez prison, also in Iranian Kurdistan. A total 51 Kurdish militants
have been summoned to appear before the Revolutionary court in Sanandaj,
accused of sedition. They face the death penalty if convicted.
On Thursday, violent protests broke out when police officers came to take
Shokkehi away for execution, together with another Kurdish prisoner, Salah
Mohammadi Guylani, being held in another prison. Shokkehi had been in Urumieh
for nine years.
A young Iranian Kurd was hanged in Sagghez on Wednesday. Farhad Salehpour, 19,
was arrested some 12 months ago and sentenced to death for killing a Islamist
militiaman. A member of a separatist Kurdish group, Salepour spent eleven
months in Sagghez on death row before being executed. Also on Wednesday, four
more Kurds who allegedly took part in unrest earlier this year were
re-arrested. They had been released conditionally earlier this month.
There have been violent protests in many cities in Iranian Kurdistan in recent
months, and the situation remains tense.
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