On July 8th the Iranian regime finally broke its silence and admitted to execution of two Kurdish political prisoners, Ali and Habib Afshari in Urumieh Central Prison in northwestern Iran. It was made clear that these two brothers were hanged on February 20th along with four other inmates in Urumieh Central Prison.
Fearing popular outrage the Iranian regime said on February 18th that these two prisoners, held in ward 12 of Urumieh Central Prison, were transferred to another location. Regime authorities even threatened their families not to follow up on their loved ones’ whereabouts.
Ali Afshar, born in 1980, along with his brother, Habib, born in 1988, were from a village near the city of Mahabad, western Iran. In the spring of 2011 they were arrested by Revolutionary Guards elements and units of the notorious Ministry of Intelligence in the cities of Bukan and Mahabad.
They were transferred to Urumieh Central Prison after 75 days of constant interrogation, along with physical and psychological torture in Mahabad and Urumieh intelligence departments. They were sentenced to death by the regime’s so-called courts in Mahabad in January 2012.