Iranian Kurd porter sentenced to death for spying for Israel

Shafaq News/ An Iranian court has sentenced a Kurdish porter to death by hanging for spying for Israel, a rights group said on Thursday.

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said Idris Ali, 31, from the border town of Sardasht, was arrested three months ago by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. He was convicted of "spying for Israel" by the third branch of the Revolutionary Court in Urmia and sentenced to death by hanging.

Hengaw said Ali had been denied the right to a lawyer and had been tortured into confessing. The group said it was appealing the verdict to the Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, a Kurdish rapper was sentenced to death for "corruption on Earth", a vague charge that can carry the death penalty, for his involvement in anti-government protests, but the ruling was later overturned.

Rights groups have condemned Iran's use of the death penalty, particularly against ethnic minorities. They say that many of those sentenced to death have been denied fair trials and that their confessions have been obtained under torture.