Kurdish prisoner of conscience Saman Mohammadi Khiyareh was secretly executed at dawn on 4 October in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Alborz Province, without being allowed a final visit with his family.
The judiciary’s official news agency Mizan confirmed the execution, stating that Mohammadi Khiyareh had been sentenced to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “membership in terrorist and takfiri (Sunni extremist) groups”, and “armed operations” in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Mohammadi Khiyareh was transferred to solitary confinement on 3 October for the implementation of his sentence, and was executed early the next morning without prior notice to his family.
Previously, on 14 December 2024 and again in October 2023, he was taken to solitary confinement for execution, but his sentence was postponed on both occasions without explanation.
On 17 December 2024, his father released a video message appealing to officials of the Islamic Republic, saying that despite the issuance of a letter ordering his son’s release, he had been transferred to solitary confinement for execution in his twelfth year of imprisonment.
Mohammadi Khiyareh, 36 years old Kurdish citizen from Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in 2013 and detained for over four years in solitary and general cells in the ministry’s detention facility in Sanandaj and Ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture to extract confessions.
The state broadcaster, IRIB, later aired a video showing his forced confessions alongside those of several other prisoners of conscience.
Following years in detention, Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced him to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) for his alleged membership of religious groups.
In May 2023, Mohammadi Khiyareh faced an additional charge of “murder” in Branch One of the Criminal Court of Sanandaj, brought by the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Dehgolan, Kurdistan Province.
However, he was acquitted after obtaining the consent of the plaintiff’s family and presenting evidence in his defence.
