Farzad Kamanger has been brutally and repeatedly tortured since his arrest in 2006. He was sentenced to death by the Iranian Revolutionary Court on February 25, 2008, charged with “endanger- ing national security” and “enmity against God.” According to his lawyer, Khalil Bahramian, who was not permitted to defend him, Farzad’s trial took place in secret, lasted only minutes, and failed to meet Iranian and international standards of fairness. Education International, which has featured his case, reports that Kamanger worked for 12 years as a teacher in the city of Kamyaran, Iran, before he was arrested and placed in detention. He also sat on the govern- ing board of both a local environmentalist group and the local branch of the teachers association. Kamanger wrote actively for the monthly journal Royan, a publication of the Department of Education of Kamyaran. He was also a writer with a local human rights organi- zation that documents human rights abuses in Kurdistan and other provinces.

We urge our readers to sign this online petition on behalf of Kamanger and other Kurdish-Iranian prisoners on death row.