Iran must immediately revoke the death sentences of prisoners of conscience
``The Iranian authorities regularly impose the death penalty for all forms of dissent. The ethnic communities, and in particular the Iranian Arabs, Kurds and Baluchis, are regularly targeted for demanding their rights, and occasionally members of these communities and their family members fall victim to the vengeance of authorities. The authorities also regularly ignore the strict ban under international law on execution of children. The Iranian government must immediately revoke the death sentences of activists from ethnic communities as well as all prisoners of conscience and join the accelerating worldwide trend to abolish the death penalty.``
Iran has upheld a death sentence for a Kurdish activist convicted of links to an outlawed separatist group after the supreme court quashed the original hanging verdict, his lawyer said yesterday.