Concerns have mounted over the imminent execution of death row prisoners Nasser Bakerzadeh, Yaghoub Karimpour, and Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, following their transfer from Orumiyeh Central Prison to undisclosed locations, and the deployment of prison guards within the facility consistent with preparations for an execution.

On 30 April, the three men were transferred from their wards under various pretexts, coinciding with reports of prison guards being stationed in the political and general wards – a measure typically taken by the authorities immediately prior to carrying out death sentences.

Bakerzadeh was removed from the prison on the pretext of a meeting with the sentence-enforcement judge, while Karimpour was taken away under the stated pretext of a referral to the forensic medical department. Abdollahzadeh was placed in solitary confinement on 28 April following an altercation with prison officers during a family visit, and he did not return to the general ward the following morning.

Since the transfers, the families of all three men have travelled to Orumiyeh Prison and to the Orumiyeh court seeking information about their sons’ whereabouts and condition. As of the time of reporting, they have received no clear response from authorities.

An unidentified fourth prisoner has also reportedly been moved to a solitary confinement cell in handcuffs and leg irons, in what a source described as a transfer carried out for the purpose of executing his death sentence.

The source noted that, on 28 April, political prisoners at Orumiyeh Central Prison had been permitted a family visit for the first time in approximately three months – an unexpected concession that had already prompted speculation among prisoners about the possibility of executions.

According to the source, after the transfer of the three men, prison officials and the judiciary now appear to be actively planning to carry out the sentences.

Amir Raeisian, Bakerzadeh’s lawyer, raised the alarm publicly on 30 April, writing on X: “Branch 39 of the Supreme Court, on 19 April, in defiance of its own two prior decisions overturning the death sentence and without addressing the objections that had been raised, confirmed a third death sentence issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh. This decision was communicated to the lawyers on 25 April, and they immediately filed a request for a retrial. After the case was referred to Branch Nine of the Supreme Court, that branch issued a stay of execution on 26 April and notified the Orumiyeh sentence-enforcement office. However, on 30 April, Nasser Bakerzadeh informed those outside from inside the prison that he had been summoned for an unknown purpose, and at the same time lawyers’ access to the case on the judicial system has been restricted.”

Bakerzadeh, 26, from Orumiyeh, who has been sentenced to death on charges of “espionage for Israel”, issued an open letter several days ago in which he rejected the charges against him, appealed for support from the public and human rights organisations, and warned of the imminent risk of his sentence being executed.

Karimpour, an Azerbaijani Turkic Yarsani citizen with a disability, was arrested on 16 June 2025 by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and, after more than two months in that agency’s detention facility – during which he was subjected to severe physical and psychological pressure to extract forced confessions – was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.

Without access to a lawyer and through a brief process devoid of fair trial guarantees, he was sentenced to death by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh on charges of “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz) through “espionage”.

Abdollahzadeh was arrested on 22 October 2022 during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising by the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was held for 38 days under interrogation involving pressure and torture, in an attempt to force him to “confess” to participating in the protests and to the killing of a Basij member.

Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh sentenced him to death on 19 September 2024, and the sentence has been upheld by the Supreme Court.