France24, December 31, 2010 – Dubbed “an enemy of God” (mahred), Habib Latifi has been sentenced to death in Iran for “breach of national security”. On Sunday morning, his execution was suspended at the last moment. But a few hours later, his whole family was arrested.
In October 2007, Habib Latifi, then a student at the University of Ilam Azad, capital of the majority Kurdish province of Kordistan, was arrested by Iranian authorities during an anti-government protest and put in prison.
The authorities accuse him of being a member of a Kurdish armed separatist group and therefore an “enemy of God”. In 2007, during a trial that was deemed unfair by human rights organizations, Habib was accused of being an “enemy of God” and condemned to hanging. But his family, who deny any links with armed separatist group, say that Habib has been imprisoned for his political
Habib should have been hanged on Sunday morning in the prison in Sandanaj. But early in the morning 300 people gathered outside the prison entrance to protest against his execution. According to Amnesty International, at 6:30 (local time) the prison warden announced that the execution had been suspended. This meant that the family were granted permission to see the prisoner. Human rights organisations cautiously welcomed this move. But that evening, the family of the prisoner, along with other protestors, were arrested at the their homes.
Iranian Kurds, of which there is an estimated 7 million, live mainly in the regions bordering Iraq, Turkey and Western Azerbaijan in the Kermanshah and Kordistan provinces. The PJAK is affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 to fight for an independent state in south-east Turkey and north-west Iraq.
Iran has the second highest rate of capital punishment after China. According to Amnesty International, at least 388 prisoners were executed in 2009. On 28th December, the official Iranian press agency (IRNA) announced the hanging of Ali Akbar Siadat, who was accused of working for the Israeli secret services.