Iraqi Kurdish media said an Iranian Kurdish dissident has been found shot dead in northeastern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
In a report published Wednesday, Irbil-based news agency Rudaw quoted the mayor of Penjwen as saying Iqbal Muradi’s body was found on the outskirts of town with several bullet wounds.
The Roj News site based in Sulaymaniyah said Muradi’s body was found late Tuesday near a river that runs by Penjwen. Muradi, a member of the Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran (KMMK), had been living in exile in the Iraqi Kurdish town. He had survived an earlier attempt on his life in Penjwen in 2008.
Roj News posted a photo of what it said was Muradi’s coffin and said residents of Penjwen held a funeral for him on Wednesday. The Amsterdam-based Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF) published a photo of the coffin being carried in a funeral procession.
KMMK issued a statement condemning what it called Muradi’s assassination. It urged Iraqi Kurdish authorities to quickly identify and prosecute the perpetrators, saying it suspects they were Iranian agents. Tehran long has cracked down on Iranian Kurdish dissidents and separatists active in the predominantly ethnic Kurdish northwest region of the country.
Iranian state media had no immediate comment on reports of Muradi’s killing.
Two of Muradi's family members — his son Zanyar Muradi and nephew Luqman Muradi — have been jailed in Iran and sentenced to death for their Kurdish political activism.
Iraqi Kurdish media said several Iranian Kurdish dissidents have been targeted and killed in Iraqi Kurdistan in recent years in attacks blamed on Iran.
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
