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

Kamal Sadeq Qader

About

Age: 49
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Presumed Muslim
Civil Status: Married

Case

Date of Killing: April 13, 2016
Gravesite location is known: Yes
Location of Killing: Gokhlan Village, Penjwin, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
Mode of Killing: Extrajudicial Execution
Charges: Unknown charge

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 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 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.

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

He was a retired employee of the Penjwin Forestry Department. After learning about the ideology of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), he left the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Case Remarks

Information regarding the extrajudicial execution of Kamal Sadeq Qader, also known as Kamal Sheikh Sadeq, son of Tali'eh and Sadeq, was gathered from an interview conducted by the Boroumand Center with one of his close associates (on April 20, 2021), legal documents, including the verdict issued by the Second Criminal Court of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the verdict issued by the Kurdistan Region Court of Appeal. The legal brief submitted to the court by the lawyers of Kamal Sadeq Qader's case, as well as interviews with Mr. Kamal Sadeq Qader and his wife with the Kurdish TV channel, Aryen TV (unknown date) and other sources* were also used as additional sources.

Kamal Sadeq Qader was born on January 2, 1967, in Penjwin, in the province of Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, to a relatively poor Kurdish family. He completed his education up to primary level, got married, and had four children. (ABC interview with an informed source, April 20, 2021, and interview with Kamal Sadeq on Aryen TV)

In 1983, as a teenager, Kamal Sadeq Qader joined the Peshmerga forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). In early 1990, he was arrested along with five of his friends by the Ba'athist government of Iraq and imprisoned for three years in the cities of Sulaimaniyah, Mosul, and Abu Ghraib prison. In 1992, after the autonomy of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the exchange of prisoners of war between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish parties, he was released along with several other political prisoners. After his release, he rejoined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and worked for two years at the customs office in the Chamchamal region, Serteki Bemo, and the customs office in the city of Darbandikhan. In 1994, Kamal Sadeq Qader returned to Penjwin and began working in the Asayish (Internal Security) Department of the Kurdistan Region. From 2005 to 2007, he was in charge of the Forest and Rangeland Forces in Penjwin. In 2007, after becoming aware of Abdullah Ocalan's thoughts, he resigned from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and joined the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party, which was more in line with Ocalan's ideology. After this resignation, Kamal Sadeq Qader earned his living through construction and renting out shops. Despite his official resignation from his former party, he continued to receive his monthly salary according to the laws of the Kurdistan Region. (ABC interview, April 20, 2021)

At the same time as joining the Kurdistan Solution Party, Kamal Sadeq Qader also established ties with the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK). He cooperated with PJAK in providing supplies to the party and relocating its members to different areas of Kurdistan. Initially, he was only a supporter and sympathizer of the party, but he officially became a member at the 3rd PJAK Congress in 2008. According to an informed source, through his efforts, some of his former friends and party members from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan were also drawn to PJAK. Influenced by Abdullah Ocalan's ideas, all members of his family eventually joined PJAK. His wife became a board member of the PJAK Women's Union, and two of his children were members of PJAK until his assassination in 2016. (ABC Interview, April 20, 2021)

According to an interview with Kamal Sadeq Qader on Aryen TV, after his resignation he came under pressure from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan because of his links to PJAK. On April 17, 2011, he was arrested by Asayish (Internal Security Directorate of the Kurdistan Region) during protests in Penjwin district against corruption and the governance of the Kurdistan Regional Government. He was tortured and handed over to the intelligence services of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, where he was detained for 15 days in Joolakan prison in Sulaimaniyah. He was finally released after a six-day hunger strike. (Interview with Kamal Sadeq Qader on Aryen TV)

In 2013, Kamal Sadeq Qader was listed as a candidate for the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party in the elections for the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, but he did not win a seat (The book "A Blossom from the Tree of Freedom - A Memoir for Kamal Penjwini", Summer 2017). In the same year, he became active in the diplomatic section of the PJAK party and represented the party in discussions with other individuals and political groups in Kurdistan. He also played an important role in organizing PJAK forces and helping to deploy them in the border mountains between Penjwin and Iran. His extensive knowledge of the region and strong connections allowed him to play a key role in providing food and ammunition to the party's forces in the border areas of Penjwin, as PJAK had previously been unable to establish a presence or operate in these areas. (ABC interview, April 20, 2021)

According to one of his close associates, Kamal Sadeq Qader was a "social, popular, humble, simple and resilient person with great problem-solving skills" (ABC interview, April 20, 2021). His wife described him as someone who was always persistent in his work, never indecisive, never afraid, and always ready to act when needed. (Interview with Kamal Sadeq Qader's wife on Aryen TV)

The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PEJAK)

The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PEJAK) is a leftist organization, established in December 2003-January 2004, with the goal of [reaching] “a democratic, ecological, society, with equality of the sexes,” in the framework of a democratic and federal Iran with autonomy for ethnic minorities. It had its first congress on April 25, 2004. Headed by Abdorrahman Haji Ahmadi, the Party has close ties to PKK in Turkey and considers “Apo” (Abdollah Ocalan), PKK’s leader, its spiritual leader. PEJAK is mostly influential in the northern regions of Iranian Kurdistan, and is engaged in armed struggle against the Islamic Republic. PEJAK calls Iranian Kurdistan “East of 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. Kamal Sadeq Qader’s Extrajudicial Execution 

According to available information, on April 15, 2016, just one day after his tragic murder, police discovered the dead body of Kamal Sadeq Qader under the Gokhlan Bridge in the Garmak area near Penjwin. After the family's repeated attempts to reach him by phone went unanswered, police used GPS tracking on his cell phone to locate him. His body was found in the water with 8 to 9 bullets in his right side, 2 bullets in each of his hands, one bullet in his head, and one bullet near his left eye. (ABC Interview, April 20, 2021)

According to an informed source who spoke to the Boroumand Foundation, the two people arrested in connection with the murder of Kamal Sadeq Qader confessed in court that their goal was to assassinate Qader. The killers also murdered Sadeq Qader's companion, Sadiq Abdullah Ali, just to make sure they wouldn't be identified and to keep their identities hidden. (Interview with an informed source, October 27, 2022). Before his assassination, Kamal Sadeq Qader was repeatedly threatened with death and targeted for assassination. Both the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan had directly and indirectly threatened him. The PUK had even advised him to leave Penjwin for his own safety, but he refused. A source close to Kamal Sadeq Qader told the Boroumand Foundation that he had personally witnessed numerous occasions when individuals calling from Iranian numbers introduced themselves as agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and warned him, "You must stop what you're doing or we will kill you. We know where you live, where you go, and we have complete information about you." However, Kamal Sadeq Qader never backed down from his struggle and was not afraid of these threats. (ABC interview with a close source, April 20, 2021).

In 2012, an assassination attempt was made on Kamal Sadeq Qader. The Counter-Terrorism Police of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq informed him that a group of Iranians had entered Iraqi Kurdistan with the intention of killing him. After some time, four people, including one Iraqi and three Iranians, were arrested by the police. These individuals confessed in court to planning and attempting to assassinate Kamal Qader, although they attempted to justify their actions as stemming from personal hatred of his activities with PJAK. However, after two trials in the Sulaimaniyah Criminal Court, and despite a formal complaint by Kamal Sadeq Qader, these individuals were handed over to the Iranian government without any explanation under pressure from the Iranian authorities. (ABC interview with a close source, April 20, 2021).

In another incident in August 2015, Kamal Sadeq Qader came under fire and was injured in his leg while riding a motorcycle near the Garmeh area. Despite his injuries, he managed to reach the local police in the Garmeh area. However, no one was arrested in connection with the shooting. (ABC interview, April 20, 2021, and interview with Kamal Sadeq Qader's wife on Aryen TV).

Kamal Sadeq Qader was buried in Sulaymaniyah on March 15, 2016. (ABC Interview, April 20, 2021).

The Kurdistan Regional Officials’ Reaction

The Sulaymaniyah police arrested the perpetrators of the murder of Kamal Sadeq Qader at the Sayranband border the day after the assassination and transferred them to Sulaymaniyah City. (Interview with a close associate of Kamal Qader Sadeq, April 20, 2021)

The Second Criminal Court of Sulaymaniyah held six trial sessions for the suspects involved in the murder of Kamal Sadeq Qader and his friend following the arrest of the murderers. The court sessions were conducted in the presence of the accused, their lawyers, and five witnesses. (Firat News Agency, April 13, 2019)

The defendants have denied the murders in court, claiming that an Iranian named "Ali" did the shooting and killing and then fled the scene. However, the Second Criminal Court in Sulaimaniyah rejected this claim. After hearing the plaintiffs' claims and witness testimonies, and considering the defendants' contradictory confessions, their lawyer's defense, and forensic reports, the court rejected the defendants' claim that a person named Ali was responsible for the murders. The court sentenced the two defendants to death by hanging and confiscated their movable and immovable property ("chattels" and "real property") according to Article 2** of Law No. 3 of 2006 (Anti-Terrorism Law of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq). (verdict of the second Criminal Court of Sulaymaniyah, August 14, 2017; interview with a close associate of Kamal Qader Sadeq, April 20, 2021; defense brief of the lawyers of Kamal Sadeq Qader and his friend).

Following the defendants' appeal, the Appeal Court of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq upheld the verdict of the first instance on June 24, 2018. (Kurdistan Region of Iraq Court of Appeal Decision, June 24, 2018)

Since the death sentence is not applied in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the execution was not carried out and the defendants were imprisoned for life in Mo'askar Salam Prison in Sulaymaniyah. (Interview with a close associate of Kamal Qader Sadeq, April 20, 2021)

The Iranian Officials’ Reaction

According to available information, the Iranian consulate did not openly support the two defendants. However, the Iranian government pressured the security officials of the province of Sulaimaniyah and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to extradite the defendants involved in the murder of Kamal Sadeq Qader and his friend to Iran. (Defense Letter of the Victims' Families, Firat News Agency, April 13, 2019)

Familys’ Reaction

The family of Kamal Sadeq Qader, after visiting the police station in Penjwin, filed a complaint against the two arrested persons. They also hired a lawyer to handle the legal proceedings for the two victims of the incident. (Interview with a close source of Mr. Sadeq Qader, April 20, 2021)

Impacts on Family

According to the available information, The extrajudicial execution of Kamal Sadeq Qader left an irreversible impact on his family and caused significant emotional trauma. His wife fell into a deep depression and often expressed that after Kamal's death, "I have no hope left in life and I am only alive for the sake of my children. Tragically, she ended her life by self-immolation in the fall of 2020.

In addition, the rest of the family received numerous threatening phone calls from Iran following the assassination. At one point, an assailant attempted to stab Kamal's daughter near their home in Penjwin, wounding her in the shoulder before escaping. Because of these constant threats, his children were forced to move to Sulaimaniyah for safety. (ABC Interview, April 20, 2021)

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*Other sources: A Blossom from the Tree of Freedom - A Memoir for Kamal Penjwini, (Summer 2017), Official website of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan - PJAK (April 15, 2016), NNS Roj (August 14, 2017), Firat News Agency (April 13, 2019), Roj News (April 14, 2018), and Kurdistan Human Rights Association (April 13, 2019).

** Article 2: The following acts are considered as terrorism and are punishable by death: 2 - Terrorism motivated by political reasons, ideology, or labeling someone as an infidel.

 

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