IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency said that Pakhshan Azizi’s alleged “connection with the Kurdistan Democratic Party [of Iran] terrorist group began in the 2000s,” and in 2014 “joined the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and PJAK [Free Life Party of Kurdistan] terrorist groups.”
Her involvement with the groups since 2009 has purportedly been to incite "chaos and civil disobedience" in Iran, according to Tasnim.
It further accused Azizi of joining university protests in Iran after being trained by the groups to spread social unrest.
In 2023, she was arrested for the second time after meeting with a victim's family during Iran’s nationwide protests after entering the country illegally, the statement added.
She was sentenced to death in June 2024 for charges of “armed rebellion.”
On Wednesday, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights watchdog reported that an Iranian court had upheld the sentence against Azizi.
”Branch 39 of the Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence against Pakhshan Azizi, a Kurdish political prisoner from Mahabad,” Hengaw said.
Tasnim claimed to have footage of Azizi carrying weapons while wearing the uniforms of the groups.
Her attorney Amir Raesiansaid that she was sentenced to death “without addressing numerous procedural and substantive flaws in the case,” as cited by Hengaw.
Azizi has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since August 4, 2023, and now faces the imminent threat of execution in the coming days.
“Her humanitarian efforts in refugee camps in northeast Syria (Rojava) and Sinjar, focused on aiding those affected by ISIS attacks, were peaceful and lacked any political motives,” Raeisiian added.
Following her death sentence, significant social media activity has emerged in support of Azizi, calling for the sentence to be overturned, with both Iranian society and the international community voicing their concerns.
Iran ranks second globally for known executions, according to Amnesty International.
Iran began 2025 by executing ten people in a prison north of Tehran, according to Hengaw, and Iran executed over 600 people in 2024, more than 120 of which were Kurds.
The death penalty has been used to suppress minority groups, like Kurds and Baluchis, who were active in the Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women Life Freedom) protests in 2022 that erupted after the death of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini while in custody of Iran’s so-called morality police for wearing a lax hijab.
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