Political Prisoner Varisheh Moradi Refuses to Attend Retrial, Rejecting the Legitimacy of the Court

Breathing in Confinement, Saturday, 11 July 2026: The retrial hearing for political prisoner Varisheh Moradi, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, 11 July, before, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, was not held due to her refusal to appear in court.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Ms. Moradi’s defence lawyers were present at the courthouse. However, Judge Abolqasem Salavati, the presiding judge of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, declined to proceed with the hearing in the absence of the defendant.

Ms. Moradi had previously been sentenced to death by the same branch of the court, under Judge Salavati, in mid-November 2024 on the charge of baghi (armed rebellion against the state). In mid-December 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and referred the case to a parallel branch of the Revolutionary Court for retrial. The Supreme Court’s decision to quash the sentence indicates that it identified procedural and/or substantive defects in the original proceedings or the lower court’s legal reasoning.

However, Ms. Moradi has stated that she refused to attend the retrial because she does not recognise the legitimacy of either the court or the judicial process. Such a position has been adopted in a number of political cases as a form of protest against the conduct of proceedings and the alleged failure to uphold fair trial standards.

It is also noteworthy that, during her imprisonment, a new criminal case was opened against her. She was sentenced to six months’ discretionary imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the state” for writing a letter marking the anniversary of the 2022 nationwide protests.

Varisheh Moradi was arrested by security forces in the outskirts of Sanandaj in August 2023, Following a period of interrogation, she was transferred on 26 December 2023 from the Ministry of Intelligence detention facility (**Ward 209 of Evin Prison**) to the **women’s ward of Evin Prison**.

Previously, Ms. Moradi, together with a number of other political prisoners held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, faced disciplinary restrictions—including the suspension of family visits and telephone calls—after protesting the implementation of death sentences and expressing support for the “Tuesdays Against Execution” campaign.

The case remains under retrial, and no date has yet been announced for the next court hearing.