Background to Ali Heydarian

Source: Iran.elple

Ali Heydarian,Kurdish human rights activist activist Ali Heydarian was arrested in August 2006 with Farzad Kamangar and Farhad Vakili in Tehran. The three were charged of being members in the Kurdish Workers Party (پارتی کار که‌رانی کوردستان Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, commonly known as PKK) and being a Mohareb, acting against national security. After 17 months in prison, the three were condemned to death as Mohareb, a religious charge meaning "warring against God" on 29 February 2008. Ali Heydarian received an additional ten years for forging his birth certificate. The religious charge Mohareb and other sham charges are often used to justify the imprisonment and execution of political prisoners, and is a serious human rights violation.
Heydarian was held in Rajai-Shahr Prison near Karaj, where he was fatally wounded by prison guards in May 2008. He was denied medical treatment until the other prisoners not united in protest. Rajai-Shahr Prison is notorious for abuse and torture and political prisoners are often housed with violent criminals as an intimidation technique. Previously, Heydarian was held in prisons in Sanandaj, Kermanshah and Tehran, where torture is also heavily documented.
On 11 January 2010, the Kurdistan Human Rights Organization listed Ali Heydarian among the 17 Kurdish political prisoners at imminent risk of execution in Evin Prison.
Torture is explicitly outlawed by Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Additionally, the Islamic Republic is in violation of Articles 8, 9, and 10 of the UDHR, which provide protection against arbitrary arrest and detention, and a fair and public hearing.