Yes, this has become the sad reality for Ramin Hossein Panahi a young man of the Kurdish minority in Iran. He was shot and arrested while going to meet with some Kurdish citizens. While his family tried to seek his whereabouts from the Iranian government, shockingly, three other members of his family were also detained. Those members were his brother, Afshin and his brother-in-law, Ahmad and Zobeir Hossein Panahi. Ramin’s mother (Dayee Sharife) and sister made several appeals to different government branches and kept looking for him 124 days.
Execution for Ramin
The first time Iran spoke out about its decision to execute Ramin was on 26 October 2017. His family received news that Iran’s Revolutionary Court intended to execute Ramin within the next 20 days. This was after an illegitimate trial took place on 25 January 2018 convicting him of to acts against the national security and for joining the Kurdish Komala Party.
Today, May 2, 2018, Agnes Callamard, a Special Rapporteur to the UN on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has urgently called for Iran to immediately halt the execution of Panahi. She also states that respect for the stringent due process of Ramin has been jeopardized. This refers to his detention time without any communication, acting out forms of torture such as slashing him with a cable, and kicking him in the stomach.
They also blocked his access to a lawyer and are refusing him to attend his medical need for the injuries caused by the gunshot. Callamard is engaged in dialogue with Iran’s authorities about Mr. Panahi’s case.
The world says 'no'
On February 4, 2018, Anwar Hossein Panahi, who is Ramin’s brother and a civil rights activist along with Ramin’s attorney named Hossein Ahmadi Nejaz, met with the two brothers in jail.
Anwar, with the support of other civil activists, made a promise to them to find help. Only after this did the two brothers end their hunger strike that had begun January 27 when they heard of the death sentence.
Signing up for petitions and writing letters to stop Ramin’s execution has been a steady position of thousands and thousands of citizens including civil and political activists to condemn the sentence.
More than 32 congress representatives (former), lawyers and university professors added to The World call out to cancel Ramin’s death. They wrote directly to the Judicial Ministry of Iran. Furthermore, 24 Human Rights’ Organizations have issued statements calling for Iran to stop Panahi’s death sentence immediately.
