Human rights defender Pouran Nazemi faces a prison sentence

Pouran Nazemi, a human rights defender and civic activist from Kerman province, faces the imminent enforcement of a prison sentence. In an urgent appeal published on 16 October 2026, the international organisation Front Line Defenders said Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad had sentenced the human rights defender in absentia to prison solely for attending the memorial of Khosro Alikordi, a lawyer.

According to Front Line Defenders, neither Pouran Nazemi nor her lawyer has been given the full text of the verdict. Her guarantor was informed orally on 26 September that the court had set three years and 9 months for the charge of "assembly and collusion against internal and external security", one year and 6 months for "propaganda against the system" and 6 months for "disrupting public order", a total of five years and 9 months. The charge of "chanting unconventional slogans" also appears in the case file. Under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the heaviest penalty, that is three years and 9 months, is enforceable.

From a violent arrest in Mashhad to the denial of medical leave

Plainclothes agents violently arrested Pouran Nazemi on 12 December 2025 at the seventh-day memorial for Khosro Alikordi in Mashhad. According to Front Line Defenders, her nose was broken during the arrest, and her mobile phone and personal belongings were seized and never returned. At the same ceremony, the security forces arrested dozens of activists, lawyers and civic figures. Officials of the Islamic Republic have denied the killing of Khosro Alikordi.

Pouran Nazemi was released on 4 February 2026 on bail of two billion toman. She and her lawyer appealed the verdict on 6 October, but on 12 October her lawyer was told that her request for medical leave had been rejected and that her appeal might never have been registered at all.

The record of a human rights defender in southern Kerman

Since 2005, Pouran Nazemi has worked in the south of Kerman province for the rights of women, children, political prisoners, families seeking justice and religious minorities, and has worked with the farming community of Jazmurian, which has been hit by climate change, on women's empowerment, well hygiene and environmental awareness. According to Front Line Defenders, her land was confiscated because of these activities, and in October 2023 the Revolutionary Court in Jiroft charged her with "insulting the sacred", "moharebeh" (waging war against God) and "corruption on earth", charges that carry the death penalty.

Front Line Defenders called on the officials of the Islamic Republic to revoke all sentences against Pouran Nazemi, end the judicial harassment of her and guarantee her access to the proceedings and the text of the verdict. The case comes as part of a wave of heavy sentences against citizens after the December–January uprising, including the sentencing of seven January protesters to 60 years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

Pouran Nazemi has been sentenced in absentia to five years and 9 months in prison solely for attending the memorial of a lawyer.