Farzad Kamangar (c. 1978 – May 9, 2010) was a 32-year-old Iranian

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 Kurdish

Kurdish people

The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...

 teacher, poet, journalist, human rights activist and social worker from the city of Kamyaran, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 who was executed on May 9, 2010.

The Accusations and the Courts

Kamangar was prosecuted on charges of mohareb "enmity towards God". An Islamic Revolutionary Court

Islamic Revolutionary Court

Islamic Revolutionary Court is a special court in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try those suspected of smuggling, blaspheming, inticing violence or trying to overthrow the Iranian government...

 sentenced Kamangar to death on February 25, 2008 on charges against national security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

 including being a member of PJAK and active participation in several bombing attacks among which was the 2006 explosion in the Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

-Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 gas export pipeline. According to his lawyer, Khalil Bahramian, “Nothing in Kamangar’s judicial files and records demonstrates any links to the charges brought against him.”

Bahramian, the lawyer, who was present during the closed-door court hearing, described it as

“Lasting no more than five minutes, with the Judge issuing his sentence without any explanation and then promptly leaving the room. ... I have seen absolutely zero evidence presented against Kamangar. In my forty years in the legal profession, I have never witnessed such a prosecution.”

For this denial, Kamangar was repeatedly tortured. Amnesty International reports that Kamangar was repeatedly beaten, flogged, and electrocuted, and that he now suffers from spasms in his arms and legs as a result of the torture.

The Supreme Court officially confirmed Kamangar's death sentence on July 11, 2008.

Kamangar was one of six political prisoners highlighted in International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran's September 18, 2008 document "Rights Crisis Escalates, Faces and Cases from Ahmadinejad's Crackdown"

Kamangar participated in the hunger strike to protest the execution of Ehsan Fatahian

Ehsan Fatahian

Ehsan Fatahian was an Iranian Kurdish activist, who was executed on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, in Sanandaj Central Prison, after being sentenced to death by the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic, for allegedly being a member of the armed wing of Komalah. He was 28 years old.Fatahian was born...

.

Human Rights Organizations' Reaction

Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, Education International

Education International

Education International is a global union federation of teachers' trade unions. Currently, it has 401 member organizations in 172 countries and territories, representing over 30 million education personnel from pre-school to university...

, and other teachers' and human rights organizations have called for Mr. Kamangar's sentence to be commuted.

Kamangar's Notes

Kamangar in a piece describes his time at the prison as follows:

"...I spent close to a month in solitary isolation, at the end of the first floor, in section 113 [of the prison]. It had a horrible stench. During this period I was not allowed to have visits nor telephone calls with any member of my family. During the 3 months of solitary confinement I was not allowed to go out in the free air. After enduring these months they moved me to a bigger cell, cell number 10, a cell intended for several persons, and I spent close to two months there. Still I was not allowed to have any contact with a lawyer or my family...."

A part of Kamangar's letter "Be Strong Comrades":

"Is it possible to carry the heavy burden of being a teacher and be responsible for spreading the seeds of knowledge and still be silent? Is it possible to see the lumps in the throats of the students and witness their thin and malnourished faces and keep quiet? Is it possible to be in the year of no justice and fairness and fail to teach the H for Hope and E for Equality, even if such teachings land you in Evin prison or result in your death?"