Mohammad Naderi, a 45-year-old political prisoner who was arrested during the war and sentenced to death on a charge of "espionage", was suddenly transferred from Greater Tehran Prison to Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj on Monday, 5 October 2026. The human rights organisation Hengaw reported the news, and Iran International republished it.
According to Hengaw, the transfer took place without prior notice. In recent years Ghezel Hesar has been one of the main sites where death sentences are carried out in Iran, and human rights organisations have repeatedly reported that prisoners sentenced to death are transferred there before their executions. For this reason, concern has grown that Mr Naderi's sentence may be carried out imminently.
Mohammad Naderi's case and death sentence
According to the HRANA news agency and the Iran Human Rights Society, Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Taghizadeh, sentenced Mohammad Naderi to death on a charge of "espionage". News of the sentence was published in early October. According to these organisations, he was arrested in the course of security developments linked to the war, but the exact date of his arrest and the body that detained him have not been disclosed.
The Iran Human Rights Society has stressed that the details of the charge, the evidence before the court and whether Mr Naderi had access to a lawyer of his choice all remain unclear. It is also not known whether his sentence has become final or is still at the appeal stage.
Mohammad Naderi's sudden transfer to Ghezel Hesar has raised fears that his death sentence will be carried out imminently.
A wave of executions in the Islamic Republic
Mr Naderi's transfer comes as the pace of executions in Iran has accelerated. Iran Human Rights has recorded at least 604 executions in the first nine months of 2026. At dawn on the same Monday, Alireza Sepahi and Alireza Raisi, two protesters in the Isfahan "Alikhani Square" case, were executed.
Human rights organisations say that since the war the Islamic Republic has sentenced a number of detainees to death on charges such as espionage and collaboration with Israel, in hasty trials without free access to a lawyer.
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