SPEAK for those whose voices have been silenced. Be a voice for Behruz Alkhani.

SPEAK for those whose voices have been silenced. Be a voice for Behruz Alkhani.

Behruz Alkhani, a 28 year old Kurdish citizen from Salmas in Azarbaijan Gharbi, is currently on death row. According to the Boroumand Foundation sources, he was arrested in late January 2010. He was held incommunicado for 19 months during which he was not allowed to contact his family or have access to a lawyer. According to a former cellmate and his brother, Behruz has been severely tortured physically and drugged to a point of mental incapacity. Due to this mistreatment, he is in poor health and prison officials are preventing him from transferring to a hospital outside the prison.


On 15 November 2011, Mr. Alkhani was tried at Branch 1 of Orumieh Revolutionary Court even though he was mentally unfit to stand trial. He was also unable to select a lawyer to defend him. The lawyers he did request were threatened to drop his case by the Ministry of Intelligence. With his closed trial lasting only 20 minutes, he was sentenced to death and 10 years of imprisonment for waging war on God, through association with PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), participation in the murder of the prosecutor of Khoy and possession of arms. Though he denied the charges against him, and the evidence presented against him, including a testimony from a witness who later admitted to having lied, is far from convincing, the Supreme court upheld Alkhani’s sentence and he remains on death row.
Unfortunately, Mr. Alkhani is one of many victims of unfair trials in Iran.

Make your voice count on this Human Rights Day for Mr. Alkhani as well as the other unjustly imprisoned minorities in Iran by SHARING this photo and informing others of Mr. Alkhani’s case