At present, 11 Kurdish political activists and civilians are imprisoned under death sentences, with at least eight others facing the risk of receiving similar sentences.
Some of these individuals were arrested during the anti-government Women, Life, Freedom uprising. They have been subjected to unjust conditions, including denial of access to chosen lawyers, severe physical and psychological torture, and unfair trials, resulting in the issuance of inhumane death sentences.
Families of these prisoners and human rights organisations have raised alarms about their critical situation, the risk of the death sentences being upheld, and the potential implementation of the issued death sentences. They have called for the annulment of these sentences and immediate attention to the dire conditions of the prisoners.
Six Kurdish political prisoners – Pakhshan Azizi, Verisheh (Wirishe) Moradi, Hatem Ozdemir, Yousef Ahmadi, Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, and Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou – were previously sentenced to death by Islamic Revolutionary Courts in Tehran, Orumiyeh, and Sanandaj on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) and “enmity against God” (moharebeh). They are currently held in the central prisons of Orumiyeh and Sanandaj, as well as in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
The cases of Azizi, Moradi, Abdollahzadeh, and Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou have been referred to the Supreme Court for appeal and await a retrial. However, the death sentences for Ozdemir and Ahmadi have been upheld by the Supreme Court, placing them at immediate risk of execution.
Additionally, five other Kurdish civilians – Shahin Vasaf, Azad Shojaei, Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, Edris Ali, and Nasser Bekrzadeh – were sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh on charges of “espionage for Israel”. They are currently imprisoned in Orumiyeh Central Prison and their cases are under special review by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, at least eight Kurdish civilians and activists – Ali Ghassemi, Pezhman Soltani, Kaveh Salehi, Rizgar Beygzadeh Baba-Miri, Javanmard Mam-Khosrawi, Mohammad Faraji, Raouf Sheik-Maroufi, and Soleyman Adhami – many of whom were arrested during the Women, Life, Freedom uprising by security forces in Sanandaj and Bukan, remain detained in Orumiyeh and Bukan central prisons.
These individuals face severe charges such as “armed insurrection” (baghi), “spreading corruption on Earth” (Efsad-e Fil-Arz), and “enmity against God” (moharebeh. The indictments against them have raised serious concerns about the likelihood of death sentences being issued in their cases.
This report will further examine the situation of those already sentenced to death and those at risk of receiving such sentences, as well as the charges brought against them and the judicial proceedings in their cases.
Political prisoners sentenced to death
-Pakhshan Azizi, born in 1984 in Mahabad and a graduate in social work, was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran on 4 August 2023 and taken to Ward 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran.
During her arrest, several of her family members were also detained but released after a few days of interrogation.
During her detention, Azizi was denied family visits and access to legal representation and was subjected to pressure and torture to extract forced confessions.
After four months and one week in solitary confinement, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison on 11 December 2023.
On 23 July 2024, Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, sentenced her to death and four years in prison on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) and membership of opposition groups. Her lawyers have appealed the verdict, and the case is currently under review by the Supreme Court.
-Verisheh Moradi (Wirishe Moradi), from Sanandaj and a member of the East Kurdistan Free Women Society (KJAR), was violently arrested by Ministry of Intelligence forces at the entrance to Sanandaj on 1 August 2023. Her arrest involved gunfire.
After 13 days in detention in Sanandaj, she was transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, where she was tortured and pressured to give forced confessions.
After five months in solitary confinement, she was moved to the women’s ward of Evin Prison on 26 December 2023.
Following two court hearings at Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Salavati, she was sentenced to death on 10 November 2024 on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi).
Her lawyers have appealed the decision, and her case is under review by the Supreme Court. Suffering from gastrointestinal problems due to a 20-day hunger strike, she has been denied proper medical care since her death sentence was issued.
-Hatem Ozdemir, a Kurdish political prisoner with Turkish citizenship and a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was captured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces on 2 July 2019 in a military ambush in the border areas of Chaldoran, West Azerbaijan Province.
He was knocked unconscious by a mortar shell during the shooting and shelling of the area.
After being arrested, he was taken to the IRGC Intelligence Organisation’s detention facility in Orumiyeh, where he endured approximately 50 days of interrogation and torture before being transferred to the city’s central prison on 19 August 2019.
In March 2022, after 33 months of detention without legal representation, Ozdemir was sentenced to death and five years in prison by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Khoy on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) and “membership in a terrorist group”.
After appealing the verdict, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict in March 2023, referring the case to Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh for retrial.
However, in May 2024, Ozdemir was once again sentenced to death, and the Supreme Court upheld this decision in September 2024. He now faces the imminent risk of execution.
-Yousef Ahmadi, a 39-year-old civilian from Baneh, was arrested on 27 April 2020 by the Ministry of Intelligence in the city. He was shot during the arrest, sustaining injuries to his leg, and was subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj.
During his detention, Ahmadi was denied medical care and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture to force a confession.
In September 2023, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj sentenced him to death on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership of a Kurdish opposition party and “participation in the killing of two IRGC members”.
In February 2024, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, placing him at immediate risk of execution.
– Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heidaranlou, born in 1985 and the father of three children from the village of Segrik in Chaldoran, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested on 13 April 2023 by security forces near the Turkey-Iran border.
He was held in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre for 11 months and 10 days, during which time he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture to force him to confess to participating in an armed clash between forces of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Iranian border guards, a confrontation that had resulted in the death of eight border guards.
In July 2024, Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, sentenced him to death on charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi) through membership in the PKK. His lawyers have appealed, and the case is under review by the Supreme Court.
-Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, a 27-year-old civilian from Orumiyeh, was arrested by security forces during the Women, Life, Freedom uprising in October 2022.
He was held for an extended period in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh before being transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
During his detention, he was subjected to severe torture to extract a forced confession of “participation in the killing of a Basij member”.
Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, sentenced him to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh). His case is pending review by the Supreme Court.
Kurdish civilians sentenced to death on charges of “espionage for Israel”
-Nasser Bekrzadeh, a 25-year-old from Orumiyeh, was arrested by IRGC Intelligence Organisation on 9 August 2023. Following several weeks in detention, he was temporarily released after pledging to cooperate with the security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
However, he was re-arrested by the same organisation on 2 January 2024 and held for several months at the IRGC’s al-Mahdi military-security detention centre in Orumiyeh before being transferred to the city’s central prison.
His trial took place on 2 November 2024 in Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, who sentenced him to death on charges of “espionage for Israel”.
-Edris Ali and Azad Shojaei, both from Sardasht, were arrested alongside Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, from Qaladze in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, by IRGC Intelligence forces in Sardasht in late June 2023.
The three detainees were subjected to severe physical and psychological torture for approximately eight months at the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in Orumiyeh in order to make forced confessions of “espionage for Israel”.
The trial of these three civilians was held on 23 September 2023 in Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Shahin, and all three prisoners were sentenced to death about a month later. Five others were sentenced to prison terms in the same case.
-Shahin Vasaf, a 28-year-old from Salmas, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh on 21 September 2022.
Vasaf was subjected to severe torture in the Ministry’s detention centre in order to extract a forced confession of “spying for Israel”, before being transferred to Orumyeh Central Prison.
His trial took place at Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Reza Najafzadeh, without the right to a lawyer of his choice.
On 3 October 2023, he was informed in prison that he had been sentenced to death for “espionage for Israel”.
Kurdish civilians and political activists accused of “enmity against God”, “armed insurrection” and “spreading corruption on Earth”
-Ali Ghassemi, Pezhman Soltani, Kaveh Salehi, Rizgar Beygzadeh Baba-Miri, and Javanmard Mam-Khosravi, residents of Bukan, along with several others, were arrested by security forces in April 2023 for participating in the Women, Life, Freedom uprising in the cities of Bukan and Baneh.
After their arrests, they were transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s detention centre in Orumiyeh, where they were subjected to months of physical and psychological torture aimed at extracting forced confessions, and subsequently were moved to Orumiyeh Central Prison. During their detention, they were denied family visits and access to legal counsel.
According to the indictment, Ghassemi, Soltani, Salehi, and Beygzadeh Babamiri face charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi), “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “assembly and collusion”, “collaboration with hostile states”, and “smuggling Starlink devices”.
Mam-Khosravi has been charged with “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “collaboration with hostile states”, and “smuggling Starlink devices”.
Additionally, Ghassemi, Soltani, and Salehi face separate charges of “premeditated murder” of an IRGC member.
On 14 July 2024, Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC, released a report and forced confessions of four of these individuals.
– Rauf Sheikh-Maroufi was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 26 December 2022, during the Women, Life, Freedom anti-government uprising in Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province.
He was subjected to severe torture for two days in a security detention centre in the city before being transferred to the Ministry’s detention centre in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province. After 170 days of detention, he was moved to Bukan Prison on 10 June 2023.
Sheikh-Maroufi is charged with “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz), and his case has been referred to Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mahabad. He is also facing charges in a separate case in Branch One of the Criminal Court of Bukan, presided over by Judge Gol-Hosseini, although the details of these charges remain unclear.
– Mohammad Faraji was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 22 February 2023, during the Women, Life, Freedom anti-government uprising in Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province, and taken to the Ministry’s detention centre in Orumiyeh, West Azerbaijan Province.
He was subjected to severe torture for three and a half months to extract forced confessions before being transferred to Bukan Prison on 10 June 2023.
In a joint case with Rauf Sheikh-Maroufi, Mohammad Faraji has been charged with “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and his case has also been referred to Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mahabad.
-Soleyman Adhami, a Sunni Kurdish cleric, was arrested on 29 January 2024 in Bukan by the Ministry of Intelligence forces and taken to their detention facility in Orumiyeh.
He was subjected to over three months of severe torture aimed at extracting forced confessions before being transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison.
The indictment against this religious activist includes charges of “armed insurrection” (baghi), “membership in the terrorist group Jamaat Ansar al-Sunnah” and “propaganda against the state”.
His case was initially referred to Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh but was later transferred to the Special Clergy Court in Tabriz following his appeal. The case remains under review.
