Ms. Zeinab Jalalian is a political activist from Maku who has been held by the Ministry of Intelligence in Kermanshah for the past eight months. In her legal file, there is no mention of engaging in violent opposition. Her death sentence is based solely on allegations that include membership in, promotion of, and recruitment for an opposition party. Her death sentence was announced while there continues to be significant obscurity regarding the circumstances that led to her arrest, the court proceedings of her case, and her lack of access to legal counsel during her few-minute long court appearance.
The Human Rights Activists in Iran have maintained their opposition to any death sentence, as they believe that capital punishment is itself symbolic of violence, and they aim to promote nonviolence. Sociological and legal studies have also shown that capital punishment not only has never promoted security as a deterrent but also has had the opposite effect of promoting violence.
The Human Rights Activists’ intent is promotion of lasting security in the province of Kurdistan. It firmly believes that suppression of political and civil Kurdish activists that has led to 13 convictions and serial executions in the region will not yield lasting security. The Human Rights Activists maintain that the legal process that led to the death sentence of Ms. Jallian has been ill defined and illegitimate and, accordingly, protest the current sentence and request transparency and re-examination of her file from the Judicial Branch.
