Family of Habibollah Latifi, Iranian Kurd student whose death sentence was only halted yesterday, were arrested in later hours of last night along with a number of other activists who had campaigned to halt the execution.
The Campaign to save Habibollah Latifi’s life reports that the motivation behind the arrest remains unclear and there are no official statements regarding these arrests.
The campaign urges the judiciary to release these individuals and calm the public, the people of Sanandaj as well as the people of Kurdistan Province.
Habibollah Latifi was to be executed yesterday in Sanandaj according to a court order delivered to his lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht.
Following relentless effort from his lawyers and his family, yesterday the family that had gathered in front of the prison from the early hours of the day along with 300 other supporting citizens of Sanandaj were informed by the authorities that Latifi’s execution had been postponed.
His lawyer has applied for a pardon and the authorities have agreed to postpone the execution until the application has been processed.
Habibollah Latifi, a law student from at the Open University of Ilam was handed a death sentence for the charge of membership in the outlawed Kurdish organization Pezhak and “enmity against God.”
Latifi denies the charges and contends that the confessions taken from him were coerced and obtained under torture.
