Iran | 5 Political Prisoners Executed in Mashhad

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 9, 2025: Farhad Shakeri, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdolrahman Gorgij, Taj Mohammad Khormali and Malek Ali Fadayi Nasab, five political prisoners on death row for security-related charges, were executed in Mashhad Central Prison without last family visits.

Iran Human Rights condemns the executions and warns of a significant rise in executions, particularly of political prisoners, and calls on the international community to take appropriate action to prevent further executions.

IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "These prisoners were subjected to torture and sentenced to death following an unfair trial in the Revolutionary Court. The international community and the people of Iran must respond seriously to these executions."

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, five men were hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 8 April 2025. Their identities have been established as Farhad Shakeri, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdolrahman Gorgij, Taj Mohammad Khormali (all four were sunni minorities) and Malek Ali Fadayi Nasab. They were sentenced to death for charges of baghy (armed rebellion) through membership in the Salafi Al-Forghan Party and affiliation with the National Solidarity Front of Iranian Sunnis” by Branch One of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court.

They were arrested with six others by intelligence agents in 2015 and were held in solitary confinement in the Intelligence Detention Centre in Mashhad for ten months to a year before being transferred to Mashhad Central Prison. All eleven men were ultimately convicted of the baghy charges. Three of their co-defendants, Hamid Rastbala, Kabir Saadat-Jahani and Mohammad Ali Arayesh, were executed at the prison on 31 December 2020. They were also denied last family visits.

One of their other co-defendants Issa Eid Mohammadi remains at risk of execution.

Farhad Shakeri, Abdolhakim Azim Gorgij, Abdolrahman Gorgij, Taj Mohammad Khormali and Malek Ali Fadayi Nasab were denied the right to a last visit with their families, who were informed of the executions by telephone.

According to IHRNGO’s 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, ethnic minorities in Iran are overrepresented in death penalty statistics. At least 145 people were executed in the 4 ethnic provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and Kurdistan in 2024.

The absolute majority of those executed for their political affiliation belong to ethnic groups, the Kurdish in particular. An overview of IHRNGO reports between 2010-2024 shows that at least 164 people were executed for affiliation to banned political and armed groups. Of those, 85 (52%) were Kurdish, 45 (29%) were Baluch and 24 (16%) were Arab, with a majority of them being Sunni Muslims.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, April 9, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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