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Iran executes Kurdish activist, wary of Kurdish gains in Middle East

Iran executed a Kurdish activist on Wednesday accused of killing a public prosecutor, the second such case this month, rights groups said, as Iran, unsettled by Kurdish gains in the region, tightens the screws on its Kurdish minority.

 

Behrouz Alkhani, 30, was convicted in 2011 of having ties to the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an outlawed group that seeks self-governance for Iran's Kurds and has links to Turkey's militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). He was also found guilty of being involved in the shooting of a public prosecutor in West Azerbaijan Province in 2010, which the authorities blamed on the PJAK. His brother, Peyman Alkhani, confirmed to Reuters that he was a member of PJAK, but said he never took up arms. Amnesty International called Alkhani's trial "grossly unfair" and said his execution was a "denigration" of both Iranian and international law because his sentence was under appeal at the Supreme Court.

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.27.15, 19:24