Iran hangs Kurdish activists
Al Jazeera English
09-May-2010

Five people, including a woman, have been executed by hanging in Iran, after being convicted of series of bomb attacks, the official IRNA news agency says.

The five were alleged members of anti-revolutionary groups.

The five were executed in Tehran's Evin prison, the agency said, quoting a statement from the capital's prosecution office.

The woman was Shirin Alamhouli. The other four were Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili and Mehdi Eslamian.

Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain public security and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

"They were convicted of carrying out terrorist acts, including bombings of government centres and public properties in several Iranian cities," the prosecutor's office said without giving the location of the bombings.

Kurdish uprising

Alamhouli, Kamangar, Heidarian and Vakili belonged to the Kurdish minority of Iran, according to the European Union and several websites that report on human rights issues.

Iranian Kurds have been fighting for their own state or self-rule enclave within the Iranian state. They claim Iran's government has been suppressing them and denying them their basic human rights.

Iran has constantly denied the accusations.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch, has previously said that Kamangar, a teacher, had been sentenced to death for having links with the PKK, which has been waging a violent campaig... >>>

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