IRANIAN Communists have joined a prominent Kurdish MP in an urgent plea to Tehran to halt the execution of political prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi.

Mr Panahi has been detained in Sanandaj prison since June 2017 and is accused of being a member of the Kurdish opposition Komala Party. Prosecutors claim he was in possession of a gun and a grenade when he was arrested.

According to his family and legal team Mr Panahi has been tortured by Ministry of Intelligence agents and Iranian Revolutionary Guards during his imprisonment.

Fears have been raised over his health after he spent months in solitary confinement and was denied medical treatment despite suffering kidney failure and amnesia.

He was due to be executed on May 3 but received a last- minute reprieve following a public outcry and demonstrations calling for his death sentence to be dropped.

But his family fear he may be executed soon after the Islamic month of Ramadan ends on June 15.

His mother Sharifeh Zarrini appealed for international support to put pressure on authorities not to execute her son.

“I want you to get close to my feelings, even if only for a moment, put yourself in my place and do something to stop this catastrophe,” she said.

She was joined by Turkish opposition MP Osman Baydemir who called on “all human beings” to demand an end to “the political genocide of the Tehran regime.”

The spokesman for the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) was banned from the Turkish parliament last year after referring to his electoral area as “Kurdistan” in an address.

He branded the political executions a “genocide against humanity” but said the Iranian Kurds are not alone. “Forty million Kurdish people are standing against the genocide of the regime.”

Iranian communists called for a stay of execution for Mr Panahi and condemned the Iranian government’s “long history and extremely poor record of using execution as a means of dealing with political dissent.”

Tudeh Party of Iran international secretary Navid Shomali told the Morning Star that political prisoners were denied due process or a fair trial.

“The use of torture and the extracting of forced confessions from detainees — routine and widespread in Iran — invalidates any sentence meted out under the draconian Iranian penal system,” he said.

Mr Shomali said the party has consistently supported the Kurdish struggle and joined the call for a stay of execution for Mr Panahi.