One Step Away from Execution: Alireza Sepahi’s Retrial Request Rejected by a Parallel Branch Without Judicial Review

Breathing in Confinement, Wednesday, 2 September 2026: The parallel branch assigned to review the case of Alireza Sepahi Badjani, a political prisoner sentenced to death in Isfahan, has rejected his request for a retrial without holding a hearing or conducting a substantive judicial review, despite the Supreme Court having referred the case for reconsideration. The case has subsequently been sent to the Criminal Enforcement of Judgments Unit.

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Shahrzad Shahbazi, a lawyer and legal counsel for Alireza Sepahi, said that the parallel branch rejected the retrial request without convening a hearing and sent her client’s case to the Enforcement of Judgments Unit for implementation of the death sentence.

According to the lawyer, following the Supreme Court’s acceptance of the retrial request, it had been expected that the case would be reconsidered by a parallel branch in accordance with legal procedures and with due regard for the defendant’s rights of defence.

Shahrzad Shahbazi also stated that she would file a new request for a retrial on Saturday and would use all available legal avenues to prevent the execution and secure a fresh judicial review of the case.

Alireza Sepahi, 25, was arrested on 10 January in connection with the nationwide protests that month and was subsequently transferred to Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.

Published reports concerning the judicial proceedings in the cases of Alireza and Abolfazl Sepahi indicate a lack of transparency and significant restrictions during the legal process. These reportedly included the lawyer’s lack of effective access to the case file, the inability to obtain a copy of the court judgment, hearings being conducted by video conference, and the failure to give due consideration to certain evidence and arguments submitted by the defendants and their lawyers.

Furthermore, according to a source close to the family, CCTV footage and other evidence in the case allegedly show that Alireza Sepahi was not present at Alikhani Square at the time of the incident cited in the case and was instead at another location. Despite this, Morteza Barati, the judge presiding over the case, reportedly sentenced Alireza Sepahi to four death sentences without effectively examining this evidence.

Several other defendants in the case have also alleged that they were subjected to pressure and torture during interrogations in an attempt to force them to confirm Alireza Sepahi’s presence at the scene of the incident. Despite these allegations, no independent and effective investigation has so far been conducted into how these statements were obtained or whether coercion was used to extract confessions or statements sought by the authorities.

As the death sentences in this case have proceeded towards enforcement, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi, two of the defendants, were executed on 19 July. Abolfazl Sepahi and Amirhossein Safari were also executed publicly in Alikhani Square in Isfahan at dawn on Tuesday, 28 July. Alireza Sepahi’s execution had previously been halted after he developed a cardiac complication.

At the initial trial, 15 defendants in this case were sentenced to death. According to information provided by the lawyer, the sentence of one defendant was overturned by a higher judicial authority, while the death sentences of the remaining 14 defendants were upheld.