Three human rights activists have been sentenced to death by the Iranian High Court after two years imprisonment and severe torture.

Below is an article published by Iranian Political Prisoners Association :

The Iranian High Court announced the death penalty of a teacher and Human right activist , Farhad Kamangar , and two political activists- Farhad Vakili and Ali Heidarian- who are of Kurdish origins.

Apparently the Head of the Judiciary, Shahroodi has personally released the order.

The three human right activists had been arrested during a trip to Tehran in August of 2006.

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Alireza Jamshidi spokesman of the Judiciary had announced on 27 May 2007, that Mr.Kamangar had been charged for membership in a terrorist organization, and with holding explosives.

After his sentence was delivered, Mr. Kamangar in a letter smuggled out, revealed that he had been tortured physically and mentally in the Intelligence Ministry detention centre. He had been tied to a bed and tortured and threatened to be raped.

Human right activists have already announced that Mr. Kamangar had been transferred twice to the prison clinic because of severe conditions resulting from torture.

Prior to this, Khalil Bahramian, and Mr. Kamangars' attorney had announced that they believe Mr.Kamangars' case is only a result of prejudice on Kurdish nationalists. He had rejected all accusations against his client.

Mr. Khalil Bahramian had also declared that his client had no knowledge whatsoever of explosives mentioned to have been found in his car. He had asserted that the aforementioned explosives had been implanted in his car in Tehran.

Teachers of Kamyaran province had collected a petition in support of the release of their colleague Farzad Kamangar. In their petition they had born witness to the fact that Mr.Kamangar had always been a law abiding citizen, and demanded the death sentence be annulled.

Farzad Kamangar has been a teacher in the Kamyaran province art college in Kurdistan. He was a member of the teachers' association, the environmentalists of Asak (meaning deer) He was also a known writer in the monthly "Royan" of the Ministry of Education.