Iran executed a Kurdish political prisoner, Hemn Mustafai, at dawn on Wednesday at Sanandaj Central Prison in Kurdistan Province.

The execution took place following his transfer to a solitary cell on Monday, as reported by the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network. A rally was held outside the prison on Tuesday night in an attempt to prevent the execution of the 34-year-old political prisoner.

“The people of Sanandaj and a large crowd coming from Marivan gathered in front of the prison and did their best until the last moment to save Mustafai’s life, but they took another person’s life,” wrote the Free Union of Iranian Workers.

Hemn Mustafai had previously been granted a temporary reprieve. He was transferred to solitary confinement for execution on 21 June 2017, but due to protests led by civil society activists and family members with the consent of the victim’s family, the execution was temporarily halted.

Hailing from the western Kurdish city of Marivan, Mustafai had been accused of killing a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2013, resulting in his death sentence. Prior to his arrest, Mustafai was a member of a Kurdish opposition party. During the interrogation, he was allegedly forced to confess to the crime under torture.

Sanandaj Central Prison has been marred by controversy, with the official execution process of numerous death row inmates, including Mustafai’s, initiated following a prison uprising in September 2022. Mustafai endured severe physical and psychological torture during his time in a Ministry of Intelligence detention centre, where he was transferred after the guards had suppressed the uprising. Throughout this ordeal, he was denied family visits. He was eventually returned to Sanandaj Central Prison five months later, after a 10-day hunger strike.

The accelerated pace of executions for death row prisoners in recent months has sparked widespread concern. Many of the individuals who have faced execution were accused of killing security forces. However, the Islamic Republic has yet to initiate any investigations into the killings of protesters by security forces, according to Iran International.