Ehsan Faridi’s Retrial Petition Rejected in Just One Day
22-October-2025
Category: Prisoners
22 October 2025
News group: Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement – With the Supreme Court’s rejection of Ehsan Faridi’s petition for retrial, the risk of his death sentence being carried out has increased.
According to Breathing in Confinement, Mahmoud Behzadi-Rad, Faridi’s new attorney, reported that the retrial petition was filed on Tuesday, 14 October 2025, but— in an unusually rapid move and without a careful review of the reasons and evidence— it was rejected just one day later, at 12:50 p.m. on Wednesday, 15 October. Behzadi-Rad added that although the case had been referred to Branch 29 of the Supreme Court, there was no substantive or expert review of the grounds for retrial. He also stated that he intends to submit another retrial petition in person on Thursday, 23 October 2025.
Following this rejection, concerns have grown over the fate of Ehsan Faridi, a 22-year-old student at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Tabriz, who has been sentenced to death. There are fears that his case may soon be sent to the Enforcement Office for execution of the sentence.
Ehsan Faridi, a student at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Tabriz, was arrested in 2023 and released on bail on 18 March 2024. He was initially sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on the charge of propaganda against the state, and eighteen months in another part of the case. However, on 18 June 2024, he was summoned to Branch 15 of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court’s Prosecutor’s Office, where the charges were changed to “corruption on earth (efsad-e fel-arz)” and “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK)”. Subsequently, Branch 1 of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death, a verdict later confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Faridi was twice sentenced to death in earlier court sessions; after objections and an appeal, at a third round of proceedings Branch 3 of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Hassan Fathpour, again sentenced him to death. That verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court. With the recent rejection of his retrial petition, the sentence is now on the verge of enforcement.
According to published information and sources close to the family, the handling of Ehsan Faridi’s case has been marked from the outset by clear violations of fair-trial standards—including pressure and threats against him and his family to extract forced confessions; lack of transparency in interrogations and hearings; inability to present an effective, impartial defence; and denial of access to independent counsel during interrogation and the preliminary investigation.
Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, condemns these unjust, unlawful and retributive rulings and warns of the serious risk to Faridi’s health and life.
The issuance and confirmation of such sentences indicate the instrumental use of the death penalty to suppress political dissent and instil social fear.
Breathing in Confinement calls on the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and all international human-rights bodies to take swift and effective action to halt the execution of Ehsan Faridi and to press for a fair review of his case. Any failure to act could lead to an irreparable violation of the right to life of a young citizen.