Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, a Kurdish political prisoner under sentence of death at Orumiyeh Central Prison, has been transferred to solitary confinement after objecting to a guard who verbally abused the families of political prisoners during a visitation session.
On 28 April, political prisoners at Orumiyeh Central Prison were permitted to hold in-person visits with their families for the first time in approximately three months.
During the session, Amir-Reza Ghaznavi, a guard on duty in the visitation hall, verbally abused and disrespected the families of political prisoners while conducting searches.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that Abdollahzadeh protested the guard’s conduct, and upon returning to his ward following the visit, was transferred to solitary confinement in handcuffs and leg irons on the orders of prison warden Peyman Khanzadeh, in what constitutes a punitive measure.
Abdollazadeh, born on 15 March 1998 in Orumiyeh, arrested by security forces on 22 October 2022 during the Women, Life, Freedom uprising.
He was detained at his workplace, a barbershop, by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and transferred to the agency’s detention centre, where he was subjected to 38 days of physical and psychological torture in an attempt to force him to confess to participating in protests and to the killing of a Basij member.
According to informed sources, he does not appear in existing footage of the killing that is in the possession of the security services, and he has consistently denied the charges against him.
A source with knowledge of the case previously told KHRN that he rejected the charges at every stage of the interrogation process and before the court, and requested that the location data from his mobile phone be examined to prove he was not present at the scene.
His family were kept unaware of his whereabouts for the first 38 days of his detention, during which time he was denied access to a lawyer and to family visits.
Following the conclusion of the interrogations, the case was referred to Branch Seven of the Investigating Directorate of the Orumiyeh Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office.
An indictment was subsequently issued, and the case was forwarded to Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, which after three hearings, sentenced him to death on 19 September 2024.
The sentence was formally communicated to him in prison on 21 October 2024.
After his lawyers filed an appeal, the case was referred to the Supreme Court, where it was assigned to Branch Nine.
On 18 December 2025, the sentence execution judge informed him that Branch Nine of the Supreme Court had upheld his death sentence, and requested that he sign a petition for clemency and pardon.
In mid-February 2026, the Supreme Court rejected his application for a retrial.
