Political Prisoners Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani Executed in Iran
27-July-2025
Category: executions
27 July 2025
News Category: Executions
Breathing in Confinement – In the early hours of Sunday, 27 July 2025, the death sentences of two political prisoners, Mehdi Hassaniand Behrouz Ehsani Eslamlou, were carried out in Iran.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the two prisoners were sentenced to death in a judicial process lacking fairness and transparency, on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh), “armed rebellion” (baghi), “corruption on earth” (efsad fel-arz), and membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).
The executions were carried out 2 weeks after the Supreme Court of Iran rejected their fourth petition for a retrial, a rejection that cleared the path for the implementation of their death sentences.
Mehdi Hassani’s lawyer, Amin Adel Ahmadian, had previously stated:
“The retrial request for Mr. Mehdi Hassani was rejected by the Supreme Court without retrieving the main case file from the lower court and most likely without reviewing my written defence. I have not been granted access to the case file to this day.”
The two prisoners were sentenced to death on 16 September 2024 by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari. They were both subjected to severe torture during interrogation and deprived of basic legal rights, including effective access to legal counsel, review of their case files, and fair trial guarantees. Security-related charges were used as tools of political repression, in direct violation of due process standards.
Background of Arrest and Identities
Mehdi Hassani, born in 1976, married with two children, was arrested on 9 September 2022 while attempting to leave the country through Zanjan and was transferred to Evin Prison.
Behrouz Ehsani Eslamlou, born in 1955 in Urmia and a resident of Tehran, was arrested by security forces in his home in November 2022 during the nationwide protests and was subsequently held in Ward 209 of Evin Prison under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence.
The Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran strongly condemns these executions, describing them as a grave warning to the international community, Western governments, and human rights institutions. The League states:
“Facing deepening social, political, and economic crises, the Islamic Republic is intensifying repression by resorting to the execution of political prisoners as a tool to instil fear and suppress dissent.”
The organisation emphasises that silence and mere verbal condemnations are not enough, and urges international human rights bodies and Western governments to take urgent, concrete, and decisive action to stop executions in Iran and hold the Islamic Republic accountable for its systemic abuses.
Annual Report on Executions in Iran
According to the annual report by the Statistics Centre of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, at least 1,170 individuals were executed in Iran in 2024. Among them, six people were executed in public, and the executed also included 38 women and 9 juvenile offenders.