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In the Kurdish province Urmiyeh a mother and her two children were sentenced to death for threatening the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Human rights organizations from Iran’s Kurdish provinces confirm that Caziye Dervis Zade and her daughter Dervis Zade (19) and her son Fetullah Dervis Zade (21) were sentenced to death. According to the court in Mahabad, the three suspects endanger Iran’s security.

According to Amnesty International, recent developments in Iran have prompted fears that the Iranian authorities are once more using executions as a tool to try and quell political unrest, intimidate the population and send a signal that dissent will not be tolerated.

UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston argues that under international law, death penalty can only be carried out for the most serious crimes. "I have shown very clearly that that phrase was intended to refer to crimes which result in an intentional death of some sort - homicide - and that any lesser crimes cannot be punished by the death penalty. Again, that is a prohibition that the Iranian courts and the Iranian government have consistently neglected or ignored."