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(New York) - The Iranian judiciary should immediately halt plans to execute Zainab Jalalian and other Kurdish dissidents, Human Rights Watch said today. Jalalian is one of 17 such dissidents currently on death row in Iranian prisons.

Jalalian may be in imminent danger of execution. Her precise status is unknown because authorities have held her incommunicado and prevented her from retaining a lawyer. Khalil Bahramian, a lawyer who represented Farzad Kamangar, one of four Kurdish dissidents executed without warning in May, told the Persian-language website Roozonline that his efforts to represent Jalalian have been rebuffed by the government and that he is not certain where she is being held. Some media reports say she may be in Section 209 of Evin Prison, administered by the Intelligence Ministry.