Iranian authorities have reduced the death sentence of Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian to life in prison, Jalalian’s defence attorney reports.
Mohammad Sharif told ISNA on Saturday: “My client informed me in a phone call that her death sentence has been nullified and commuted to life in prison.”
Jalalian was arrested in 2007 and the next year was sentenced to death for collaborating with the dissident Kurdish group PJAK.
Sharif told ISNA: “In view of the actions we have taken in this case, Zeinab Jalalian’s sentence has been commuted and reduced to life imprisonment on the basis of a pardon.”
Human Rights Watch previously had called for the annulment of Jalalian’s death sentence. The rights group had also spoken out against her arrest and sentencing with no access to a lawyer.
In the past three years, at least seven Kurdish political prisoners have been executed by Islamic Republic authorities, and reports indicate that 17 more Kurdish prisoners are still on death row.
