Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Memorial
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Behruz (Rebin) Rahimi

About

Age: 48
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Islam (Sunni)
Civil Status: Married

Case

Date of Killing: July 14, 2021
Location of Killing: Shoresh Hospital, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
Mode of Killing: Extrajudicial shooting

Human rights violations in this case

Extrajudicial killings

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of politically motivated violence in Iran and around the world. Since the 1979 Revolution, Islamic Republic operatives inside and outside the country have engaged in kidnapping, disappearing, and killing a large number of individuals whose activities they deemed undesirable. The actual number of the victims of extrajudicial killings inside Iran is not clear; however, these murders began in February 1979, with the murder of Parviz Sayyah Sina, an Anglican Bishop, and have continued since then, both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has so far identified over 500 extrajudicial killings outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.(1)

Dissidents have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic outside Iran, where one of the first assassinations, that of a Navy Officer, Shahriar Shafiq, took place in Paris in December 1979. These assassinations have taken place in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, India, and Pakistan in Asia; Dubai, Iraq, and Turkey in the Middle East; Cyprus, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain in Europe; and the United States across the Atlantic Ocean. In too many cases, states have failed to guarantee the victims’ rights to the truth, justice, and remedy; states have revealed little about the assassinations and have not issued arrest warrants. Where there have been arrests and prosecutions, available information reveals a state policy of eliminating perceived enemies. 

Documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm, however, the theory of state committed crimes. In certain cases, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion (The Netherlands, 2018) or arrest (Brussels, 2020; Turkey, 2021) of Iranian diplomats. In limited cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial (Paris 1980 and 1991) and the evidence presented, revealed the defendants’ connection to Iran’s government institutions, and an arrest warrant (the Mikonos Trial in Germany) has been issued for Iran’s then-Minister of Information, Ali Fallahian and the Deputy Minister of Telecommunications, Hossein Sheikh Attar.

The manner in which these killings were organized and implemented in Iran and abroad, is indicative of a single pattern which, according to Roland Chatelin, the Swiss prosecutor, contains common parameters and detailed planning. It can be ascertained from the similarities between these murders in different countries that the Iranian government is the principal entity who ordered the implementation of these crimes. (2). In 1997, the Berlin Criminal Court, in charge of hearing the case of the shooting of Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant, officially announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s highest-ranking officials had issued the order to carry out the killings. According to the indictment, the decision to commit the murders was made in a committee called the “Special Operations Committee” composed of the President, the Minister of Information and Security (VAVAK), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, representatives of the various security organs and other organizations, and finally, the Leader of the Revolution. 

Iranian authorities have not officially accepted responsibility for these murders and have even attributed their commission to internal strife in opposition groups. Nevertheless, since the very inception of the Islamic Republic regime, the Islamic Republic officials have justified these crimes from an ideological and legal standpoint. In the spring of 1979, Sadeq Khalkhali, the first Chief Shari’a Judge of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, officially announced the regime’s decision to implement extrajudicial executions, and justified the decision: “ … These people have been sentenced to death; from the Iranian people’s perspective, if someone wants to assassinate these individuals abroad, in any country, no government has any right to bring the perpetrator to trial as a terrorist, because such a person is the implementing agent of the sentence issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Therefore, they are Mahduroddam (“one whose blood may be spilled, whose life can be taken, without the perpetrator incurring any punishment”) and their sentence is death regardless of where they are [and where you find them].” 

More than 10 years after these proclamations, in a speech about the security forces’ success, Ali Fallahian, the regime’s Minister of Information stated the following regarding the elimination of members of the opposition: “ … We have had success in inflicting damage to many of these little groups outside the country and on our borders” (Speech broadcast on the state-run Iranian Radio and Television on August 31, 1992, quoted from Asr Iran, August 17, 2006).

Extrajudicial killings have rarely been pursued legally in Iran. The few murders that were followed up on in 1998 , which came to be known as “the Serial (Chain) Murders(3),” have brought to light the involvement and responsibility of the country’s Information officials. Several Ministry of Information agents who were defendants in the Serial Murders case, confirmed the existence of a long term government policy of extrajudicial killings and emphasized that there was planning on an annual basis to carry out these executions, for which a religious decree was issued. There was a budget allocated and there were objectives set, and those who participated in the murders were commended. In a lecture given at [the city of] Hamedan’s Bu Ali University in 1996, Sa’eed Emami, Ministry of Information Deputy Minister for Security Affairs and one of the principal defendants in the Serial Murders case – who was later said by Iranian officials to have committed suicide while in detention – had stressed that the activities of Iran’s security forces were not confined to the country’s borders: “ … We have set the security perimeter within the confines of our borders. [However,] if we see threats infiltrating inside the country from abroad, we will enlarge the perimeter.”

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1) Among the first known murders that occurred a week after the February 1979 Revolution was that of Mr. Parviz (Arastu) Sayyah Sina, the bishop of a church in the city of Shiraz. The assassination of Mr. Shahriar Shafiq, an Imperial Navy officer, in December 1979 in Paris is among the first murders committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the country. ​​These killings continued in the following years inside and outside the country and in various forms.
2) Investigations into the murder of well-known personalities in France, Germany and Switzerland have yielded evidence and documentation showing that the officials and employees of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran acted as accomplices and principals [in the killings]. In France, the Islamic Republic’s Deputy Minister of Post and Telegraph was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for the murder of former Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar and his assistant, Sorush Katibeh. In Germany (Berlin), the Islamic Republic’s security agents and agents of the Lebanese Hezbollah were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of four Kurdish opposition leaders. In connection with the latter case, German Judicial authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian, the then-Minister of Information. 
3) A few days before Mr. Mokhtari’s murder, Dariush Foruhar and his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, leaders of the People of Iran Party, had been killed in a most heinous manner in their own home. After Mr. Mokhtari’s body was found, the body of Mohammad Ja’far Puyandeh, another well-known literary figure, was discovered in a village near the city of Karaj. These four individuals’ cases was named the “Serial Murders”.
Human rights violations

Based on the available information, the following human rights may have been violated in this case:

  • The right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation. 

UDHR, Article 12, ICCPR, Article 17.1. 

  • The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to change and manifest one’s religion or belief.

UDHR, Article 18; ICCPR, Article 18.1, ICCPR, Article 18.2; Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, Article 1 and Article 6.

In its general comment 22 (48) of 20 July 1993, the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee observed that the freedom to "have or to adopt" a religion or belief necessarily entailed the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one’s current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views, as well as the right to retain one’s religion or belief. Article 18, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert.

  • The right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.

UDHR, Article 19; ICCPR, Article 19.1 and ICCPR, Article 19.2.

  • The right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of one’s interests.

UDHR, Article 20; ICCPR, Article 22.1.

  • The right, as a member of a religious or ethnic minority, to enjoy one’s own culture or to profess and practice one’s own religion. 

UDHR, Article 18; ICCPR, Article 27.

  • The right to equality before the law and the right to equal protection of the law. 

UDHR, Article 7; ICCPR, Article 26.

The right to due process

  • The right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a competent and impartial tribunal in accordance with law.

ICCPR, Article 14.1 and Article 14.2.

Pre-trial detention rights

  • The right to know promptly and in detail the nature and cause of the charges against one.

UDHR, Article 9(2); ICCPR, Article 9.2 and Article 14.3.a

  • The right to counsel of one’s own choosing or the right to legal aid. The right to communicate with one’s attorney in confidence

ICCPR, Article 14.3.b and Article 14.3.d; Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, Article 1, Article 2, Article 5, Article 6, and Article 8.

  • The right to adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defense case.

ICCPR, Article 14.3.b.

Trial rights

  • The right to a fair and public trial without undue delay.

ICCPR, Article 14.1, Article 14.3.c.

  • The right to examine, or have examined, the witnesses against one, and the right to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on one’s behalf under the same conditions as prosecution witnesses.

ICCPR, Article 14.3.d and Article 14.3.e.

  • The right to have the decision rendered in public.

ICCPR, Article 14.1.

Judgment rights

  • The right to appeal to a court of higher jurisdiction.

ICCPR, Article 14.5.

  • The right to seek pardon or commutation of sentence.

ICCPR, Article 6.4.

Capital punishment

  • The inherent right to life, of which no one shall be arbitrarily deprived.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 6.1; Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, Article 1.1, Article 1.2.

  • The right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

ICCPR, Article 7; Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Article 1 and Article 2.

About this Case

Correct/ Complete This Entry

Mr. Rebin Rahimi, a supporter of the PJAK party, left Iran for Iraqi Kurdistan in 2012 with his wife Zoleikha Naseri. This was done in order to avoid potential persecution by the Iranian government, as well as to evade the risk of information leakage to security officials.

Joint explanation of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (Network) and the "Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC): This case is a part of the collaborative documentation of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network intends to gradually document cases of extrajudicial executions of Kurdish citizens and activists. For this purpose, the network has used the experiences and research methodology of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which has been active in the field of documenting human rights violations in Iran for many years. The report of this case and subsequent reports will be published in the "documentation" section of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network website and the "Omid Memorial" of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center. Some of the original and follow-up interviews used in this documentation were conducted by the Center, some by the Network, and some in collaboration.

Information regarding the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Behruz (Rebin Sana) Rahimi, son of Jeiran and Saleh, born in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, married, was obtained from interviews with his wife, Ms. Zoleikha (Ronahi) Naseri (April 18, May 1, and February 4, 2023), an informed source on the case (January 11, 2023), and a cadre member of PJAK (May 1, 2023). Additional information was taken from the websites of ANF News Agency (March 29, 2021), Rudaw Media Network (in Kurdish, November 7, 2023), Kurdistan Human Rights Network (July 16, 2021), PJAK (July 19, 2021), the Bitawan Association blog (August 5, 2021), and the archives of ABC and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network.

Mr. Rahimi was born into a Kurdish Sunni family on September 9, 1973. He attended school until middle school, then dropped out and entered the labor market early. From the age of 14, he worked at "Jaleh," a construction company owned by his brother. Shortly after joining the company, he took over the responsibility of the company's procurement department. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

Mr. Rahimi voluntarily helped some drug users in their rehabilitation process in the relevant centers, including in the cities of Qorveh and Hamedan. After reducing the side effects of drug abuse in these people, he encouraged them to engage in sports, especially mountaineering. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

In 2002, Mr. Rahimi, along with his wife (Zoleikha Naseri), became acquainted with the goals and programs of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) through the "Nojin" mountaineering group in Sanandaj. Regarding the reason(s) for their "support" of this party, Ms. Naseri says: "As mountaineers and nature lovers, it was the first time we saw a Kurdish political organization that also had programs for nature and the ecosystem. They also had programs for women, for youth, for everything. Programs that were very different from what we had heard before. My family has a background of supporting the PDKI [Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan]. Nine of my close relatives lost their lives for their support of this party. However, we developed an interest in this party by observing the young guerrillas* during mountaineering, particularly the female guerrillas. In contrast to the male speakers in other previous political parties, the women in this group confidently expressed their opinions on a range of political and social issues. Their ability to engage in discourse on these topics was a novel experience for us. In addition, their behavior in the mountains and their articulation of organizational goals and programs contributed to our interest in them. As a result, we began working with the group on organizational activities from the very beginning.” (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

These activities continued until 2012, when Ms. Naseri was summoned by intelligence and security officials in Sanandaj. Mr. Rahimi and his wife fled to Iraqi Kurdistan because they were afraid of revealing information under pressure from security officials. (ABC Interview, May 1, 2023)

Shortly after their departure, Mr. Rahimi and his wife sought asylum at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Erbil. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023, Rudaw Media Network, July 14, 2021)

Mr. Rahimi and his wife began working in a bakery in the city of Qaladze with a meager income, and then moved to Sulaymaniyah. In Sulaymaniyah, Mr. Rahimi worked as a security guard in a warehouse and Ms. Naseri worked as a seamstress. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023) Meanwhile, they continued their cooperation with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

Ms. Naseri continued her activities publicly by participating in media programs, but Mr. Rahimi continued his activities under an alias. One of his main activities was recruiting members for PJAK. He was one of the administrators of a Kurdish telegram channel called "Democratic Confederalism" and played an important role in promoting the party's goals and programs. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

Mr. Rahimi was "a calm, kind, noncontroversial person" who was interested in sports, including mountaineering. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

Background of The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) 

The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) is a leftist organization established in January 2004 with the aim of creating "a democratic-ecological and gender-equal society" within the framework of a democratic and federal government in Iran, where autonomy is granted to all ethnic minorities. It held its first congress on 25 April 2004. The party, led by Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, has very close ties with the PKK Party in Turkey, and regards Apo "Abdullah Ocalan" as its spiritual leader. PJAK mostly has influence in the northern parts of Iranian Kurdistan, where it is engaged in an armed struggle against the Islamic Republic. PJAK refers to Iranian Kurdistan as East Kurdistan.

Background of Extrajudicial Killings by the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of politically motivated violence in Iran and around the world. Since the 1979 Revolution, Islamic Republic operatives inside and outside the country have engaged in kidnapping, disappearing, and killing a large number of individuals whose activities they deemed undesirable. The actual number of the victims of extrajudicial killings inside Iran is not clear; however, these murders began in February 1979 and have continued since then, both inside and outside Iran. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has so far identified over 540 killings outside Iran attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Dissidents have been assassinated by the agents of the Islamic Republic outside Iran in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, India, and Pakistan in Asia; Dubai, Iraq, and Turkey in the Middle East; Cyprus, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain in Europe; and the United States across the Atlantic Ocean. In most cases, there has not been much published, and local authorities have not issued arrest warrants. But documentation, evidence, and traces obtained through investigations conducted by local police and judicial authorities confirm the theory of state committed crimes. In some instances, these investigations have resulted in the expulsion or arrest of Iranian diplomats. In a few cases outside Iran, the perpetrators of these murders have been arrested and put on trial. The evidence presented revealed the defendants’ connection to Iran’s government institutions, and an arrest warrant has been issued for Iran’s Minister of Information.

The manner in which these killings were organized and implemented in Iran and abroad is indicative of a single pattern which, according to Roland Chatelin, the Swiss prosecutor, contains common parameters and detailed planning. It can be ascertained from the similarities between these murders in different countries that the Iranian government is the principal entity that ordered the implementation of these crimes. Iranian authorities have not officially accepted responsibility for these murders and have even attributed their commission to internal strife in opposition groups. Nevertheless, since the very inception of the Islamic Republic regime, the Islamic Republic officials have justified these crimes from an ideological and legal standpoint. In the spring of 1979, Sadeq Khalkhali, the first Chief Shari’a Judge of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, officially announced the regime’s decision to implement extrajudicial executions and justified the decision: “ … These people have been sentenced to death; from the Iranian people’s perspective, if someone wants to assassinate these individuals abroad, in any country, no government has any right to bring the perpetrator to trial as a terrorist, because such a person is the implementing agent of the sentence issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Therefore, they are Mahduroddam and their sentence is death regardless of where they are.” More than 10 years after these proclamations, in a speech about the security forces’ success, Ali Fallahian, the regime’s Minister of Information, stated the following regarding the elimination of members of the opposition: “ … We have had success in inflicting damage to many of these little groups outside the country and on our borders.”

At the same time, various political, judicial, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have, at different times and occasions, confirmed the existence of a long term government policy for these extrajudicial killings and in some cases their implementation. 

Read more about the background of extrajudicial killings in the Islamic Republic of Iran by clicking on the left hand highlight with the same title.

Mr. Rebin Rahimi’s threats and extrajudicial execution

According to available information, Mr. Rebin Rahimi was shot on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah in an area called "Jaleh" on July 14, 2021, and died hours later in the hospital. (Kurdistan Human Rights Network, July 16, 2021)

Mr. Rebin Rahimi was repeatedly threatened by the Intelligence and Security officials of the Islamic Republic during his years of residence in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. About seven months before Mr. Rahimi's extrajudicial execution, he was warned to cooperate with security officials. This threat was first communicated through text messages on WhatsApp and then through direct phone calls, but Mr. Rahimi did not take these threatening messages seriously. In one of the calls, the threatener reminded Mr. Rahimi of his poor financial situation and encouraged him to return to Iran and cooperate with security officials in order to receive a monthly salary, benefits, and other perks. According to Ms. Naseri, the threatener specifically told Mr. Rahimi, "If you do not cooperate with us, we will cut off your pension benefits forever, and we will confiscate your share of the inheritance of the family house [the same house where Rebin was born]. At the end of this conversation, Mr. Rahimi was again threatened that if he did not cooperate, he would "meet the fate of two PJAK members named Zagros Mani and Shugar Chia** [who were killed in 2020]. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023, Kurdistan Human Rights Network, July 16, 2020)

Mr. Rebin Rahimi was shot by unknown assailants at noon on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah, in a place called "Jaleh," after he had finished work and was on his way home of rest. Due to the quiet nature of the place, it took about an hour and a half for other colleagues and workers in the warehouse to find him unconscious on the floor. After unsuccessfully trying to get an ambulance, they took Mr. Rahimi to "Shuresh" Hospital in Sulaymaniyah in a private car and informed his wife of the incident. Despite severe bleeding, Mr. Rahimi was still able to speak after being transferred to the hospital, and he urged his wife to take the threats seriously and take care of herself. Due to severe damage to his carotid artery, Mr. Rahimi died in the hospital at approximately 4:00 p.m. on the same day. His body was handed over to his wife after an autopsy the next day, July 15, 2021, and he was buried the same day in the "Chahar Cheragh" cemetery in Sulaymaniyah. After Rebin Rahimi's death, his wife's family and his own family [including his brothers and sisters] held separate funeral ceremonies for him in the city of Sanandaj. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023, Kurdistan Human Rights Network, July 16, 2020)

Mr. Rebin Rahimi was shot by unknown assailants at noon on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah, in a place called "Jaleh," after he had finished work and was on his way home of rest. Due to the quiet nature of the place, it took about an hour and a half for other colleagues and workers in the warehouse to find him unconscious on the floor. After unsuccessfully trying to get an ambulance, they took Mr. Rahimi to "Shuresh" Hospital in Sulaymaniyah in a private car and informed his wife of the incident. Despite severe bleeding, Mr. Rahimi was still able to speak after being transferred to the hospital, and he urged his wife to take the threats seriously and take care of herself. Due to severe damage to his carotid artery, Mr. Rahimi died in the hospital at approximately 4:00 p.m. on the same day. His body was handed over to his wife after an autopsy the next day, July 15, 2021, and he was buried the same day in the "Chahar Cheragh" cemetery in Sulaymaniyah. After Rebin Rahimi's death, his wife's family and his own family [including his brothers and sisters] held separate funeral ceremonies for him in the city of Sanandaj. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023, Kurdistan Human Rights Network, July 16, 2020)

In a CCTV video, two assailants in a BMW car with tinted windows and no license plate, armed with a Makarov pistol with a silencer, shot Mr. Rebin Rahimi four times after following him, with one bullet hitting him from behind. (ABC Interview, January 10, 2024 and April 18, 2023, Kurdistan Human Rights Network, July 16, 2021)

Mr. Rahimi died at the hospital on Wednesday, July 14, 2020, at 4 p.m.

With the arrest of two suspects by the authorities of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq and the opening of a legal case, it has become clear that this murder was premeditated.

According to court documents, one of the detainees confessed that they had been watching Mr. Rahimi's home and workplace for a long time on the orders of Iranian security officials with the intention of killing him. (Archived documents from ABC and Kurdistan Human Rights Network) According to an informed source, this surveillance began about six months before the assassination with the opening of a chicken shop near Mr. Rahimi's residence. (ABC Interview, January 10, 2024) Court documents also show that the assassins (a father and son) hid the car and weapon after the murder and immediately drove to the Baneh border. At the border, the father went to Iran while the son returned to Sulaymaniyah to sell the car and the weapon, and was arrested, along with a relative who was cooperating with him as a taxi driver. (Archived documents from ABC, and Kurdistan Human Rights Network)

Iranian Officials’ Reaction

Security officials threatened Mr. Rahimi's family to prevent them from holding a funeral ceremony. A sister and brother of Mr. Rahimi were summoned to the Sanandaj Intelligence Office and threatened not to release any photos or videos of the ceremony. As a result, no pictures of their ceremony were published. Additionally, intelligence officials issued threats to the Rahimi family, indicating that they would not be permitted to visit the grave of their brother in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. They also conveyed repeated warnings to Ms. Naseri through Mr. Rahimi's family, indicating that she would face the same fate as Mr. Rahimi if she persisted in her political activities. The intelligence officials also threatened her through her own family, calling one of Ms. Naseri's brothers and asking him to persuade his sister to return to Iran and surrender herself to the security officials. The security officials promised that if she returned [to Iran], she would not be arrested and would receive her entire dowry and her share of Mr. Rahimi's family house. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023) 

After Mr. Rahimi's death, an auction notice was posted on the wall of his family's house, stating that a share of the house was for sale. The asking price for this share was only 300 million tomans. As a result, Mr. Rahimi's two brothers and two sisters quickly bought his share after the funeral, effectively canceling the auction. (ABC interview, April 18, 2023)

A Ministry of Intelligence-affiliated website called "Bitawan Association of West Azerbaijan," which was established in 2010 and propagates only against the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), published a report on Mr. Rahimi's murder three weeks after his extrajudicial execution. The report suggests that security officials were aware of Mr. Rahimi's activities: "According to the available information, it is evident that Behruz Rahimi, codenamed Rebin Sana, was a member of PJAK and served this group for years in the border areas of Iran and Iraq, and was apparently responsible for their recruitment and transfer to Qandil." (Bitawan Association website, August 5, 2020)

This website called Mr. Rahimi's murder a "political assassination" and blamed the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) for his murder. (Bitawan Association website, August 5, 2020)

Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq’s Official Reaction

The judiciary of the Kurdistan Regional Government arrested two people identified as "Pishro M." and "Shafan A." in connection with the investigation of this murder. According to Sohrab Rahmati, one of the lawyers in the case, and an informed source, after the trial of the two suspects, one of them was sentenced to life imprisonment under Article 2 of the Terrorism Law, while the other was acquitted. (ABC Interview with an informed source, January 10, 2024, Rudaw, November 7, 2023)

According to the documents in Mr. Rahimi's case, "Pishro M." had a criminal record for "espionage" and "attempting to kidnap an Iranian political dissident residing in the Kurdistan Region" on the orders of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and was arrested in Sulaymaniyah in 2017 on this charge and imprisoned for one year and seven months. (Archived documents from ABC and Kurdistan Human Rights Network)

Despite the fact that Mr. Rahimi's murder was legally addressed, the Kurdistan Regional Government did not take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of his wife, Ms. Naseri. Despite Ms. Naseri's appeals to the security institutions in Iraqi Kurdistan, not only were the necessary measures not taken to ensure her safety, but there was also "obstruction and hindrance" regarding her house rental and business license. (ABC Interview, April 18, 2023)

Family’s Reaction

According to Ms. Naseri, Mr. Rahimi's brothers and sisters are in Iran and are unable to pursue legal action due to threats and pressures from Iranian security officials. Ms. Naseri, who lives in Iraqi Kurdistan, contacted the Asayish office (the Kurdish security organization and primary intelligence agency operating in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq) a few weeks after Mr. Rahimi's burial and asked them to follow up on her husband's case. She personally visited the Asayish office in the town of "Arbat" in Iraqi Kurdistan to review the CCTV footage of the warehouse area where her husband was shot. She eventually filed a lawsuit with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq to pursue the case legally. Following the verdict of the primary court, Ms. Naseri and the lawyers in the case appealed the decision, seeking the maximum sentence*** for the first defendant and a retrial for the second defendant. (ABC Interview, April 18 and February 4, 2024)

Impacts on Family

No information is available on the impact of Mr. Rahimi's assassination on his family in Iran. However, this incident has had a significant impact on his wife's life in Iraqi Kurdistan. Following this murder, the Kurdistan Regional Government imposed numerous economic and social restrictions on Ms. Naseri. She was forced to close her tailoring atelier due to security concerns. In the absence of family support and adequate assistance from civil institutions in Iraqi Kurdistan, including relevant international organizations, Ms. Naseri's life was drastically changed. (ABC interview, April 18, 2023).

Other Reactions

Five days after Rebin Rahimi's murder, the Social Committee Center of the "KODAR Organization" (of which PJAK is a member) published a statement regarding the incident. The statement referred to Rebin Rahimi by his organizational code name "Rebin Sana" and described him as a civil activist and "supporter" of this party. The party called Rebin Rahimi's murder a "political assassination" and strongly condemned it as a "criminal act." The statement concluded by directly blaming the Iranian government and its "hired Kurdish mercenaries" for the assassination, citing similar incidents in previous years (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, PJAK website, July 19, 2021). 

In an interview, a cadre of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) stated that “threats against the group's members and supporters have been a persistent issue, particularly in the Kurdistan region. We have been threatened many times, and in many ways, and we have no organizational means to better protect ourselves or our supporters. In response to these threats, we can only ask our threatened members to be even more vigilant about security measures.” (ABC Interview, May 1, 2023)

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*"Gerîla" is the Kurdish equivalent of the term "guerrilla" and is used to describe the military forces of parties such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PJAK). Some other Kurdish parties use the term " Pêşmerge" to describe their military forces. Pêşmerge is also the name of the armed forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.
** Mehdi Reza'i (Zagros Mani) and Ako Fathi (Shugar Chia) were two members of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) who were killed on February 4, 2021 in the "Cham Shalir" area near the city of Pêncuyin in Iraqi Kurdistan. PJAK confirmed their deaths in an official statement on March 28, 2021 (Kurdistan Human Rights Network archive.
*** Under Iraqi law, the maximum penalty is death.

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