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Several academics and thinkers have published an open letter and demanded that Ramin Hossein Panahi, the Kurdish activist from Iran who has been sentenced to capital punishment, be released from prison.
The letter has been addressed to President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, its Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif and its Chief Justice Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani.
The letter has been signed by a number of thinkers and academics, including Etienne Balibar, Michael Löwy, Toni Negri and Noam Chomsky.
"We demand the abolition of death penalty"
In the letter, the signatories have demanded that all political prisoners in Iran be released and capital punishment be abolished:
"We, the signatories, are concerned about the death penalty against Ramin Hossein Panahi. Despite the international oppositions and actions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is decisive for the execution.
"Amnesty International, has started a signature campaign and the HDP (Democratic Party of the Peoples) in Turkey has cried out against the death penalty. The death penalty had to be removed.
"His lawyer Hossein Ehmedi Niyaz says: 'There is still a danger that he could be hanged at any time.'"
"He was sentenced to death in a trial that lasted less than an hour"
The letter has referred to the judicial process of Panahi as follows:
"Ramin Hossein Penahi was arrested on June 23, 2017. Panahi wanted to visit his family in the town of Sine during the day. There was a confrontation with Iranian Revolutionary Guard Sepah and 3 inmates were killed and Penahi injured.
"Penahi neither used weapons nor had any weapon in his hand. Only after 4 months one could hear from him. During his imprisonment, he was systematically tortured. He was beaten up with cables, he was punched and kicked several times and his head was hit against the wall. Medical treatment was denied.
"On 16 January 2018, he was sentenced to the death penalty according to §182 of the Iranian Constitution in a trial that lasted less than an hour. His family explained that the wounds of torture were still visible during the trial. They objected to the prison testimony because it was was recorded under torture. Their objection was rejected.
"His lawyer Niyaz highlights four points in his speech: First, Ramin's statement were recorded under torture; secondly he was not arrested with weapons, thirdly Ramin did not kill anyone and lastly, there is no prosecutor against Ramin. It is obvious that he is not guilty and the verdict is politically motivated against the Panahi family."
Signatories
Dr. Halis Yıldırım, Munich
Prof. Noam Chomsky, Arizona University
Dr. Talin Suciyan, LMU, Munich
Prof. Dr. Christina Schües, University zu Lübeck
Prof. Dr. Werner Ruf, University Kassel
Prof. Warren Montag, Occidental Collage, Los Angeles
Dr. Annette Ohme-Reinicke, University Stuttgart
Wolf Göhring, Bonn
Harald Pietzsch – GEW member, Düsseldorf
Prof. Fredrid Jameson, Duke University
Tobias Linnemann, University Oldenburg
Prof. Terry Pinkard, Georgetown University, Washington, DC USA
Prof. Charles Taylor – McGill University
Prof. Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College, Columbia University
Prof. Jeff McMahan, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford
Professor Raphael Salkie, University of Brighton, UK
Prof. Lennard J. Davis, University of Illinois at Chicago
Prof. David Ingram, Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago
Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Voß, Merseburg
Dr. Arzu Yılmaz, German Institute for International Affairs and Security (SWP)
Dr Janroj Yilmaz Keles, Middlesex University
Prof. Tony Smith, Iowa State University, USA
Prof. em. Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate
Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck
Dr. Markus Brunner, Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna, Austria
Prof. Giuseppe Luca Celardo, Institute of Physics, Puebla, Mexico
Prof. Ben Kiernan, Yale University
Joy Harjo, poet, musician, and author
Sima Aprahamian Hovhannessian – Ph.D, Research Associate , Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
Assistant Prof. Ozlem Goner, City University of New York
Prof. Dr. Hans-Lukas Kieser, Universityen Zürich und Newcastle, Australien
Prof. Adi Ophir, Visiting Professor of the Humanities, the Cogut Institute for the Humanities and the Program for Middle East Studies, Brown University, Professor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University
Prof. Ashis Nandy, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
Süleyman Ateş, GEW member, Cologne
Prof. Elti Cattaruzza, Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Dr. Maud Meyzaud, Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty Member, Department of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst, Europa-University Flensburg
Christian Katz, GEW member, Oldenburg
Prof.dr. em. Aviel Verbruggen, University of Antwerp
Tobias Linnemann, University Oldenburg
PD Dr. Joachim Bromand, University of Bonn
Prof. Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield
Prof. James Dickins, department of Arabic, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Prof. Dr. Otmar Hagemann, Kiel University of Applied Sciences
Corinna Trogisch, social scientist, Berlin/Germany
Prof. Dr. Siegfried Echterhoff, University Münster
Prof Dr. Joop de Jong, University Amsterdam
Prof. Dr. Angela Koc, Kunstuniversity Linz
Dr. Eva Hohenberger, Ruhr-University Bochum
Elisabeth Abendroth, Frankfurt am Main
Prof. Eran Schaerf – Zurich University of the Arts
Prof. Dr. Lamice EL-AMARI, theatre critic, Berlin, Germany
Prof. Christine Robins (formerly Allison), University of Exeter
Prof. Dr. Markus Tiedemann, Dresden University of Technology
Hovhannes Gevorkian, Student der Rechtswissenschaften und studentischer Beschäftigter, FU Berlin
Dr. Mehmet Kart, University Vechta
Marianne Koester, Frankfurt
Prof. Richard Walker, Berkeley, California USA
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Ortmeyer , Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main
Dr. Kurt Grünberg, Sigmund-Freud-Institut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Dr. Esmeray Yogun, CNAM Paris France
Monireh Baradaran, Sozialwissenschaftlerin
Prof. Nadje Al-Ali, Chair, Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London
Prof. Dr. Christoph Lumer, University of Siena
Prof.em. Micha Brumlik – Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien, Berlin
Dr. Susanne Offen, Leuphana University Lüneburg
Dr. Brita Eckert, Frankfurt am Main
Renate Wiggershaus, autor
Dr. Rolf Wiggershaus, Kronberg/Ts.
Marion Ruth Thimm, Berlin-Germany psychotherapist
Dr. Med Detlev Thimm, pediatrician and child psychiatrist
Prof. Dr. Johano Strasser
Associate Professor Dr. Fatma Karakas Dogan, Bremen University Law Faculty, Bremen-Germany
Prof. Dr. Sabine Hark – Center for Interdisciplinary Women and Gender Studies, TU Berlin
Prof. Dr. Markus Rothhaar, Katholische University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Richard Gebhardt, Politikwissenschaftler, Publizist, Referent, Cologne
Willi van Ooyen, Frankfurt am Main
Sima Kassaie-van Ooyen, Frankfurt am Main
Günes Gümüs, Academic for peace, University Ankara
Prof. Etienne Balibar, Université de Paris-Ouest, Kingston University London
Professor Bertell Ollman, Dept. of Politics, NYU
M.A. Robin Schrade, Ruhr-University Bochum
Prof. Mehmet Ugur, University of Greenwich
Prof. Michael Löwy, em. research director CNRS Paris
Prof. Toni Negri, philosopher, Paris
(AS/SD)
