Iran activist’s death sentence commuted to 30 years in prison: Lawyer

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Sharifeh Mohammadi, an Iranian labor activist previously sentenced to death over alleged ties to Kurdish opposition parties, has had her sentence commuted to 30 years in prison, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

Mohammadi was handed a death sentence in July 2024 for allegedly participating in armed rebellion, known as “Baghi.” She was accused of membership in a group linked to the Komala Party, an exiled Kurdish group designated a terrorist organization by Tehran.

“By the decision of the Honorable Head of the Judiciary, the death sentence of Ms. Sharifeh Mohammadi was commuted to a first-degree prison sentence (thirty years),” Amir Raesian Mohammadi’s Lawyer said in a post on X on Wednesday.

Raesian added that the immediate risk of execution has been averted, but efforts continue to overturn Mohammadi’s conviction and secure her acquittal on the charge of rebellion.

Iran has frequently arrested individuals and charged them with armed rebellion, or “Baghi”, and “rebellion against God,” often targeting those allegedly linked to major Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK).

Iran’s use of the death penalty has drawn widespread international condemnation.

In March, over a dozen international rights organizations and advocacy groups sent a joint letter to the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the German Federal Government, urging them to intervene and save Mohammadi as well as two other Kurdish women on death row - Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi —from execution.

The three activists are only some of the women who have been sentenced to death by Iranian authorities in recent months. Their lawyers have repeatedly stated that the sentences are unjust.

The women's movement has always been an active movement in Iran’s Kurdish areas and has constantly faced repression. Dozens of women activists were arrested in Sanandaj in 2022 for their role in organizing the protests following the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini.

Activists in Iran decry the lack of a law to protect women against violence and oppression by the society, their families, and even by government institutions.

Source: thenewregion.com, Staff, October 29, 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

Comments

Indiana governor rejects brain scans for death row inmate ahead of execution

Gov. Mike Braun is still weighing Jeffrey Weisheit’s clemency request, however. Gov. Mike Braun’s administration will not allow death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit to undergo additional brain scans before his scheduled execution next week. The decision follows weeks of legal efforts by his attorneys to obtain additional medical evidence for his clemency case. Braun’s general counsel, Stephanie Flittner, met with Weisheit’s legal team Wednesday to discuss the testing and his pending clemency request.

Texas | Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing San Benito police lieutenant

A Cameron County jury recommended the death penalty for Rogelio Martinez for killing a San Benito police lieutenant during a police chase in Brownsville. Martinez stared forward as the judge announced the recommendation. Lt. Milton Resendez's family told Martinez in court that their lives will never be the same. Resendez's wife and siblings walked past cameras and declined to speak with reporters. Inside the courtroom, where no audio or video recording was allowed, Resendez's sister Jackie raised her voice at Martinez during impact statements.

Alabama | Brian Martin sentenced to death in killing of Sheffield Sgt. Nick Risner

Brian Lansing Martin was sentenced to death Monday for killing Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner, whose death prompted Alabama lawmakers to restrict early-release credits for inmates convicted of killing someone with a deadly weapon. A Colbert County judge formally imposed the sentence Oct. 26, following a jury’s unanimous recommendation in September, WAFF reported. “Today’s sentence represents justice and accountability for the murder of Sergeant Nick Risner,” Colbert County District Attorney Hal Hughston said in a statement quoted by the station.

Florida | Bunnell man sentenced to death for fatally stabbing wife outside their home in 2024

A Flagler County judge sentenced Jermaine Mandell Williams Sr. to death Monday for stabbing his wife outside their Bunnell home in 2024. Williams, 34, was convicted of 1st-degree murder in July. Jurors deliberated about 20 minutes before finding him guilty and later voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty. The attack happened Aug. 2, 2024. Surveillance video and testimony showed Williams went inside the home, returned with an 8-inch chef’s knife and attacked his wife, Yolonda Charmaine Williams, in the street, according to court and prosecution accounts. She was stabbed 19 to 20 times and later died at a hospital.

Indiana's governor turns down clemency request, says execution planned for Thursday will go forward

Indiana’s governor turned down a clemency request and says an execution planned for Thursday will go forward against a man who killed his girlfriend’s two children in 2010 Indiana's governor turned down a clemency request Monday and said an execution planned for this week would go forward for a man who set a fire that killed his girlfriend's two children in 2010. Gov. Mike Braun said he would follow the Indiana Parole Board's recommendation to let the death sentence stand for Jeffrey Weisheit. “The Indiana Department of Correction will continue preparations to carry out the court-ordered sentence of execution” Thursday, said Braun, a Republican.

‘I’m Not Incompetent’ Christa Pike’s execution doctor, Mark Fowler, speaks.

Dr. Mark Fowler knew something was wrong after 45 minutes passed without word from the warden. In most cases, executions take no more than ten minutes. When he was summoned from his waiting room to the chamber next door, he saw 50-year-old Christa Pike, who’d received two lethal doses of pentobarbital that night, strapped to a gurney, gasping for air. “She’s not dead,” Fowler recalls the warden saying. “I thought, Well, in human beings there’s a spectrum of responses to medications and we’ll give it a few more minutes,” he says. Another half-hour passed. Fowler worried she might survive with irreversible brain damage. “She’s going to be in a permanent vegetative state with a quarter-million dollars in medical expenses.” He came back in and diagnosed her as comatose. The deputy commissioner ordered the execution to stop. Now, instead of taking part in Pike’s death, Fowler’s job was to bring her back to life.

François Mitterrand, the Justice Minister Who Sent 45 Men to the Guillotine

The socialist president celebrated for abolishing the death penalty in France sent 45 condemned men to the guillotine when he was Minister of Justice. In French political history, François Mitterrand is the father of the historic victory of May 1981. He remains associated with one of the greatest moral laws of the Fifth Republic: the definitive end of capital executions, carried through with Robert Badinter in the autumn of 1981.

US woman who survived botched execution says she's in constant pain

Convicted murderer Christa Pike said Friday that she is in constant pain, a month after surviving a botched execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee. "There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," Pike said in a statement released by her lawyers. "My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts," she said. "I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul."

Indiana Parole Board hears testimony on clemency for man scheduled for Nov. 5 execution

Jeffrey Weisheit set his house on fire in 2010, killing his girlfriend’s two young children he was watching. The Indiana Parole Board will now make a recommendation in the coming days to Governor Mike Braun on whether to grant clemency to condemned killer Jeffrey Weisheit. Jeffrey is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 5 for the 2010 murder of his girlfriend's 2 children in Vanderburgh County.

USA | 3 states to carry out rare triple execution this week

If all three executions are carried out as planned, it will be the second triple execution in the U.S. this year, reflecting an overall uptick in the death penalty since the beginning of 2025. Three states are planning to carry out a rare triple execution this week on Nov. 5. Indiana is set to execute Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, by lethal injection for the 2010 murders of his girlfriend's two children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb. The children were burned alive in their home.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog