On December 19, 2021, the IRI secretly carried out the execution by hanging of ethnic Kurd, Heidar Ghorbani, despite international outcry against his torture and sham trial.

BBC reported: "In a rare public display of defiance in Iran, protesters have shouted anti-government slogans outside the home of a Kurdish man who has been executed. Crowds gathered in Heidar Ghorbani's hometown of Kamyaran, in Kurdistan province, calling him a martyr."

During his 2016 trial for murder, armed rebellion, and membership in the banned Kurdish Democratic Party, no evidence was presented other than a false confession under torture.

Neither his family nor his lawyer were alerted prior to the execution. When Heidar's brother protested, he was arrested.

Ghorbani was 47. Circulating on social media is a photo said to depict Heidar at 7 years old with his grandfather at the grave of Heidar's father, who was executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1981.

The IEC honors the memory of this hero of the people and vows to give urgency to our struggle to free Iran's political prisoners NOW.

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