Five Azerbaijani Turkic activists from Tabriz have each been sentenced to one year in prison in Zabol, two years of forced residence in the county of Zabol and two years of deprivation of electronic services. HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, named them on Sunday, 11 October 2026, as Sima (Akram) Alipour, Salar Taherafshar, Vahid Abhari Iranagh, Nima Radmanesh and Hossein Esmaili Soomeh.
According to HRANA, the five were summoned in October 2025 to Branch 3 of the Tabriz Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office investigation unit. The charges listed in the summonses included "propaganda against the system" and "disturbing public opinion". The court that issued the verdict and the date of issue have not been announced.
Exile to Zabol, thousands of kilometres from home
A sentence of imprisonment and exile in Zabol, in the north of Sistan and Baluchestan province and more than two thousand kilometres from Tabriz, is one of the punishments the Islamic Republic's judiciary has repeatedly used to separate civil and ethnic activists from their families and homes. Deprivation of electronic services also restricts the convicts' access to a large part of everyday affairs.
Background of the arrests
Salar Taherafshar is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Evin prison. According to HRANA, he was arrested in Urmia on 18 February 2025, and Branch 36 of the Tehran Court of Appeal sentenced him to five years in prison on a charge of "assembly and collusion". In December 2025 or January 2026, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court added another year to his sentence in a case opened against him while he was in prison.
Vahid Abhari was arrested in Tabriz on 23 November 2024 and released on 3 December on bail of 200 million toman. Sima Alipour was summoned to the Tabriz intelligence office on 18 March 2025; she and her husband had also been arrested in Tabriz earlier, in May or June 2022. Nima Radmanesh, 21, and Hossein Esmaili Soomeh were arrested by IRGC intelligence in Tabriz on 15 December 2024 and transferred to Tabriz prison after 15 days; they were released on 29 December of that year on bail of 700 and 400 million toman.
These sentences come amid broad pressure on Azerbaijani Turkic activists, including Milad Balsini, a civil activist from Tabriz, who has been in detention for more than 50 days on a charge of contact with free media.
The Islamic Republic's judiciary has sentenced five Azerbaijani Turkic activists from Tabriz to prison and exile in Zabol, on the other side of Iran.
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