05 November 2013 :

a 33-year-old Kurdish political and civil activist from Baneh, Shirkoo Moarefi, was hanged in the prison of Saghez for Moharebeh and membership in Komalah Party. Moarefi did not know that his death sentence was going to be enforced. “He only realized he was about to be hanged when he saw the gallows,” a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The source said that following roll call on the evening of Sunday, 3 November, the Saghez Prison Intelligence Supervisor, Noroozi, summoned Shirkoo Moarefi to “Zir-Hasht,” the central sentry of the facility, and told him that he would be punished for smoking in his cell inside the Health Ward. After prison Special Forces members and two prison guards put handcuffs and footcuffs on the man, he was transferred to solitary cells, referred to as “The Suite.” At 5:30 a.m. the Intelligence Supervisor went to his cell and told Shirkoo that they were going to transfer him to the Sanandaj Central Prison and he had to go with them. Shirkoo, who had grown suspicious of the situation, asked Noroozi whether this was about his execution sentence. But Noroozi told him that it wasn’t anything important and that he was only going to be transferred to the Sanandaj Central Prison as a punishment. At 6:00 a.m., in the presence of a group from the Intelligence Ministry, the Head Warden and the prison Intelligence Supervisor, Shirkoo was transferred to the waiting room of the visitation hall and in that enclosed space Shirkoo Moarefi’s sentence was enforced. Neither his family nor his lawyers were given prior notice that, as is demanded by the law, his death sentence was to be carried out. Authorities arrested Shirkoo Moarefi on the Iran-Iraq border while he was attempting to return to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan in 2008. He was sentenced to death on 1 November 2007 on the charge of “moharebeh” (enmity with God), “membership in Komalah Party,” and “acting against national security.”. His death sentence was confirmed twice on 14 November 2009 and 1 May 2011 but he wasn't executed due to public pressure.