Shayan Shakibaei, Dey uprising detainee in Kerman, sentenced to death

Branch 5 of the Kerman Revolutionary Court has sentenced Shayan Shakibaei, a 29-year-old protester living in Kerman, to death. News of the sentence was published on Saturday, 31 October 2026. Shakibaei was arrested in Kerman on 8 January 2026, at the height of the Dey uprising.

In the same case, three other defendants were sentenced to a combined 28 years in prison. Their names and the details of their charges have not yet been published. According to published reports, the Islamic Republic's judiciary has described Shakibaei as the “leader of the Kerman protests”.

Televised confession after his arrest

After Shakibaei's arrest, state media aired a video in which he “confesses” to the charges. Broadcasting televised confessions before trial is a standard method the Islamic Republic uses to build cases against protesters, and political prisoners have repeatedly said such confessions are extracted under pressure and torture. So far, neither the indictment has been published nor is it clear whether Shakibaei has had access to a lawyer of his choice or whether the sentence has gone to the Supreme Court.

A wave of death sentences for Dey protesters

Shakibaei's sentence came just one day after DIAR reported death sentences for Shahab Zohdi and four other detainees of the Dey uprising in Tehran's revolutionary courts. On the same day, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of the judiciary, called for faster handling of “collaboration with the enemy” cases.

Iran Human Rights had earlier said that hundreds of people detained in the Dey uprising face death sentences or charges that carry the death penalty. The UN fact-finding mission also announced this week that at least 221 children were killed in the Dey uprising.

Shayan Shakibaei, 29, was sentenced to death ten months after his arrest in the Dey uprising.