Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced Varisheh Moradi, a Kurdish political prisoner and women's rights activist from Sanandaj, to death for the second time. The sentence was issued even though in November–December 2025 the Supreme Court had overturned her first death sentence because of flaws in the investigation and violations of due process, and sent the case back to the same branch for a new hearing.
The news of the renewed death sentence was published on Wednesday, 14 October 2026. Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, headed by Abolqasem Salavati, a judge known for handing down harsh sentences against political prisoners, is the same branch that issued the first sentence.
Background to Varisheh Moradi's case
On 1 August 2023, Varisheh Moradi was arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents at the entrance to Sanandaj as she was returning from Kermanshah. According to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, the agents fired shots during the arrest and treated her violently. She was held in Sanandaj for 13 days and then transferred to Ward 209 of Evin prison, run by the Intelligence Ministry; she spent five months in solitary confinement and, according to the organisation, was subjected to pressure and torture to extract a forced confession. On 26 December 2023, she was transferred to the women's ward of Evin.
Her trial was held in two sessions, on 15 June and 5 October 2024, and the death sentence on a charge of "baghi" (armed rebellion) was communicated to her lawyers on 10 November 2024. According to human rights organisations, her indictment had been drawn up under Article 288 of the Islamic Penal Code, with a maximum of 15 years in prison, but Judge Salavati sentenced her to death under Article 287. Her lawyers were also not allowed to mount an effective defence. Mostafa Nili, her lawyer, announced in November–December 2025 that the Supreme Court had overturned the sentence, among other reasons, because the charge on which the death sentence was based had not been properly explained to her.
Pressure on the prisoner during the retrial
In her years in prison, Varisheh Moradi has repeatedly faced new fabricated cases. In protest against death sentences, she went on a 20-day hunger strike starting 10 October 2024, the World Day Against the Death Penalty. In April–May 2026, she was sentenced to another six months in prison for writing a letter on the anniversary of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. In June–July 2026, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Judge Salavati, after she refused to attend a court session, banned her visits and phone calls with her family for an indefinite period.
The renewed death sentence for Varisheh Moradi comes amid a wave of executions in Iran; a few days ago the Supreme Court also upheld the death sentence of Amirhassan Akbari Monfared, a student imprisoned in Evin, and Amnesty International called the execution of five protesters from the Dey (December–January) uprising in a single week a tool of intimidation.
A court whose sentence was once overturned by the Supreme Court has handed down the same death sentence to Varisheh Moradi again.
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