Iran | Toomaj Salehi: Execution of Ekbatan Protesters is Against Humanity

Toomaj Salehi, a former political prisoner and protest artist, has condemned the death sentences handed down to four defendants in the “Ekbatan” case, calling them “unjust and against humanity.”

Writing on his official account on the social media platform X, he stated: “I am writing these words at a time when freedom of expression and media freedom, which we never truly had to begin with, have been suppressed in the most severe manner possible under the pretext of war, while poverty rains down upon the people from both earth and sky.”

Salehi noted that there are still “survivors of the glorious and proud Woman, Life, Freedom movement who remain in prison, and four of them, Milad Armoun, Navid Najaran, Mehdi Imani, and Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini, have been sentenced to execution under an unjust and inhumane ruling.” He emphasized: “Our honor dictates that we stand against this injustice.”

Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati, sentenced four of the defendants in the “Ekbatan District” case to death on the charge of “Corruption on Earth.” This ruling comes even though a criminal court had previously declared that the accusation of murder against the defendants had not been definitively proven, making a retribution sentence impossible. The four individuals handed the death penalty are Milad Armoun, Navid Najaran, Mehdi Imani, and Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini.

The other four defendants in the case, Amir Mohammad Khosh-Eghbal, Alireza Barmarzpournak, Alireza Kafaei, and Hossein Nemat, were each sentenced to five years in prison, an additional two years in prison on charges of propaganda against the regime, a two-year ban on social media activities, and a two-year residency ban from Tehran and Alborz provinces.

Source: Iran Wire, Staff, May 26, 2026

"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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