The lawyer of Iranian Kurdish prisoner Heidar Ghorbani said that the supreme court has denied his request for a retrial.
Heidar Ghorbani’s lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said that the Branch 27 of the supreme court has rejected his request for a retrial which he made in December 2020.
“The case was sent from Revolutionary Court to the Implementation of Verdicts Unit in Kamyaran after the request was rejected, but so far no order has been issued by the branch to implement the verdict,” Nikbakht said.
Saleh Nikbakht added: “I will request a retrial again. Legally and jurisprudentially, the charge of “Baghi” against Mr. Ghorbani is not a valid charge.”
Heidar Ghorbani has been on death row for “baghi,” (armed rebellion against the state), despite serious violations of his trial court and the court’s findings that he was never armed.
Ghorbani and his brother-in-law, Mahmoud Sadeqi, who lived in a village in Kamyaran in Kurdistan Province, were arrested in October 2016 on charges of “collaborating and assisting in the killing of several members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.” Ghorbani was arrested by several agents from the Ministry of Intelligence who raided his home and failed to show an arrest warrant. For nearly three months, Ghorbani’s family was denied any information about his fate and whereabouts and did not even know if he was dead or alive.
The forty-eight-year-old Ghorbani had appealed his sentencing, but Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on September 6, 2020.
Ghorbani’s lawyers appealed to Ebrahim Raeisi, then Judiciary Chief, to exercise the powers granted to him under Article 477 of Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure and order a review of the case on the basis that the verdict issued is evidently in contravention with both Iranian and Shari’a law.
On March 8, 2017, Press TV, an Iranian state-owned outlet that broadcasts in English, aired a propaganda video entitled “The Driver of Death,” which featured the forced “confessions” of Ghorbani without his knowledge.
Ghorbani’s family, including his wife, son, and brother, released videos emphasizing that Ghorbani has been tortured into confessing and called for international help to stop his death sentence.
