- Iran’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 91,472 last week. The coronavirus has also caused 5,806 deaths in the nation, while 70,933 of those infected have reportedly recovered. That said, several Iranian opposition groups, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), continue to accuse the Islamic regime of misleading the public and claim Iran’s actual coronavirus numbers are significantly higher than those reported. Likewise, Iranian authorities continue to obfuscate coronavirus statistics in Iranian Kurdistan, a region that has been hit especially hard by the pandemic.
- The Iranian regime has now executed at least 10 Kurds over the past two weeks in response to a March prison break in Saqqez. Most of the executed were previously charged with homicide and had received suspended death sentences, while additional Kurds are liable to face execution in the coming weeks. The regime’s actions have stoked public outrage, and many activists have described them as merely the latest embodiment of the Iranian government’s discriminatory policies towards Kurds.
- Iranian authorities continued their crackdown on Kurdish political activity last week in spite of the regime’s policy granting conditional release to some prisoners to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. On April 21, the Sanandaj Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kurdish activist named Akbar Goili to five years in prison for “cooperation” with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported Goili was initially arrested on August 20, 2019 and free on bail prior to his sentencing. Simultaneously, a Kurdish man named Ismael Ardawani was arrested by Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) for “cooperation” with a Kurdish party in Marivan.