By Ahmad Eskandari
12/11/2009
Ehsan Fattahian, the 28 years old Kurdish freedom fighter lost his life in a prison in Sanandaj, the capital city of the Kurdistan province in Iran. He had been arrested on 19 July 2008 in Kamiaran, a small town located between Sanandaj and his hometown Kermanshah. He had joined the Komala organization to engage in a struggle to oppose the Iranian regime to fight for democracy, freedom in Iran and the national rights for the Kurdish people. However, he had never practically participated in any armed struggle whatsoever and he was unarmed, on visit to relatives while he was arrested.
Fattahian was subjected to different kinds of torture in custody and eventually he was sentenced by the ‘Islamic revolutionary court’ of Sanandaj to 10 years in prison exiled to a jail far from Kurdistan. According to a letter written by Ehsan Fattahian himself and published 18 November 2009, the local prosecutor was not satisfied with that and the appeal court had changed the verdict to execution. The news appeared for the first time on 8 October 2009 on Amnesty International’s website. Then again on 10th November “Iran must halt imminent execution of Kurdish man” which led to a massive campaign among Iranians and Kurdish communities outside Iran. A couple of petition letters were launched and a huge activity on the Internet and Facebook was organized.
Unfortunately, it was known that he was ‘executed’ on Wednesday 11th November. The problem is that his body was not delivered to his family; while appealing for an amnesty, his father announced on Tuesday 10th November on VOA-Persion TV satellite channel that they were never allowed to pay a visit to their son in jail. Ehsan had had a number of telephone calls from prison during the last 16 months.
In an interview with the Persian website Roozonline.com published today Thursday 12 November 2009, the Iranian Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebady has recommended that the parents of Ehsan ask for an impartial doctor autopsy the body prior to his burial in order to become sure on the cause of his death. Nobody was present on the ‘execution’ scene on that day; not the family members, nor his attorney. No medical certificate has been released upon his execution. . .
The experience of ‘sudden death’ of former prisoners in Iran such as Zahra Kazemi the Iranian-Canadian journalist, and many demonstrators during the recent protest actions in Tehran and other cities are only a couple of examples. In the same town of Sanandaj, on 6th January 2008, Ebrahim Lotfollahy, a young Kurdish student of Law was arrested and after only 9 days in jail, a cemented grave was shown to his family as the only sign of their son. The immense effort of the relatives and human rights campaigners for an autopsy was fruitless. The young Ebrahim had no political affiliation to any oppositional movement in Kurdistan.
According to a local human rights organization, a picture of a newly buried grave in the city of Kermanshah has been provided today. In it is the body of Ehsan Fattahian where he was buried in secret and without the knowledge of his family. One can draw the conclusion that the political prisoner Ehsan Fattahian may has not been alive while the freedom loving people around the world were gathering signatures and making appeals to Iranian authorities in order to prevent his ‘execution’. In his letter from prison, he mentions how he has been forced to ‘confess’ under torture.
While we are in grief of the death of a young man who struggled for freedom and democracy for his people, it is important to make new efforts in order to put pressure on the Iranian regime not to execute some 12 other Kurdish political prisoners who are in similar condition in different jails in Kurdistan.
Ahmad Eskandari is a Kurdistani human rights campaigner, lives in Sweden
