Farzad Kamangar

Farzad Kamangar (1975–2010) was a Kurdish schoolteacher from Kamyaran who became an international symbol of political repression in Iran. Arrested in 2006, he was charged with moharebeh (enmity against God) for alleged membership in PJAK, charges he denied. His trial lasted only minutes and was condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as lacking due process. He was secretly executed on 9 May 2010 in Evin prison, along with four other political prisoners, without his family or lawyer being notified. His letters from prison gained widespread circulation and he became a symbol of the Kurdish rights struggle in Iran.