Press Release:

Paris, 10 October 2002

The execution of a Kurdish political prisoner in Iran

 In a release published on 9 October 2002, the political Bureau of our Party (PDKI) informed the general public of the execution of a member of our Party Mr. Hamzeh GHADERI on 7 October 2002, by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Mr. Ghaderi was born in the city of Sardasht (Iranian Kurdistan), and was arrested in 1997 by the regime on the grounds of “becoming member of PDKI”. After a sham trial, he was sentenced to death. After spending over five years in the sinister prisons of the Iranian regime and being subjected to torture and inhuman treatments, he was executed at dawn on 7 October 2002.

According to the information we received from Iranian Kurdistan, the lives of about ten other Kurdish political prisoners who were sentenced to death are threatened; not to mention hundreds of other Kurdish political prisoners who have been sentenced to long prison terms.

We condemn this crime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and call upon all human rights organisations, in particular the United Nations Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International to strongly condemn this heinous crime and take urgent measures to save the lives of these prisoners. 

International Relations Bureau of

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

P.S. – We have a list of about hundreds of these prisoners, several of whom have been sentenced to death, and others sentenced to long prison terms (up to 30 years).