Qaleh Chanaan case in Ahvaz: 12 Arab citizens at risk of execution on charges of "moharebeh" and "baghi"

Twelve Arab citizens detained in the Qaleh Chanaan case in Ahvaz faced charges, at a hearing before Branch 2 of the Karun county investigating court, that carry the death penalty under the Islamic Republic's laws. HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, reported on 12 October 2026 that the hearing had taken place.

The charges put to them at the hearing are "disrupting public order and comfort", "moharebeh through firing on Basij bases", "baghi through armed uprising against the system" and "assembly and collusion against national security"; the last charge was recently added to the case. The charges of "moharebeh" and "baghi" have heightened the families' fear of a death sentence. No verdict has yet been reported in this case.

Without lawyers and without word from their families

The 12 citizens are Ahmad Bavifard, Jassem Bavi, Mohammad Ali Bavi, Tareq Hasaniyan, Yousef Hasaniyan, Hamid Hasaniyan, Bahador Zargani, Hamed Zuheiri, Tawfiq Silavi, Hossein Silavi, Mansour Naseri and Mohammad Neisi. Since their arrest none of them has been allowed a lawyer of their choosing, and their families were allowed neither to attend the hearing nor to visit.

According to the Karun Human Rights Organisation, after months held in Ministry of Intelligence cells these detainees were transferred on 22 July to Ward 2 of Sheiban prison in Ahvaz. Tareq Hasaniyan and Mohammad Ali Bavi have had no phone contact with their families in seven months of detention, and Hamid Hasaniyan, in his only short call, reported severe beatings in detention.

Background to the case

The case goes back to the events of 9 March 2026 in Qaleh Chanaan; the entry of Ministry of Intelligence forces into the area led to a clash, and a number of citizens were arrested, wounded or killed. In March the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence claimed that five people had been killed and 10 arrested in the operation linked to this case, but did not make clear the identity of those killed. The case had earlier been handled by an investigator named Hossein Montazeri and was then handed to a judge named Vadinejad.

At the same time, Hamzeh Savari, an Arab political prisoner in Ghezel Hesar, has gone on hunger strike in solidarity with Mokhtar Alboshokeh, who is on hunger strike in solitary confinement in Arak prison. Executions of political prisoners have accelerated in recent months, and on Wednesday, 14 October, Alisina Mostafavi, a mountaineer and prisoner, was executed in Kerman.

Twelve fellow Arab countrymen in the Qaleh Chanaan case, with no access to a lawyer or their families, face charges that carry the death penalty.