Harsh Sentences for Five Political Prisoners in Urmia: Multiple Death Sentences, Imprisonment, and Financial Penalties
8-July-2025
Category: Prisoners
7 July 2025
News outlet: Prisoners
Breathing in Confinement – Five Kurdish political prisoners, arrested during the nationwide protests in 2022, have been sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Urmia, presided over by Judge Reza Najafzadeh, on charges of baghi (armed rebellion) and moharebeh (enmity against God).
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, the death sentences for Kaveh Salehi, Teyfour Salimi Babamiri, Pejman Soltani, Ali (Soran) Ghasemi, and Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri have been issued and formally communicated to their lawyers. These rulings continue a broader trend of severe sentences handed down to participants in the 2022 protests amid an opaque and unjust judicial climate.
According to information published by human rights sources:
• Kaveh Salehi, Ali (Soran) Ghasemi, and Pejman Soltani have each been sentenced to death three times for baghi and for “forming and leading a rebellious criminal group under the name of the Anjoman-e Shoreshgaran (Rebels’ Association), in support of Komala and Pak groups.”
• Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri has received two death sentences on similar charges.
• Teyfour Salimi Babamiri has been sentenced to death once for “forming and leading the Shoreshgaran Shamarin group, affiliated with Komala and Pak.”
In a separate case, all five prisoners were sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of nearly 400 million tomans on charges of “intelligence cooperation with Israel through Mossad operations, smuggling 120 Starlink satellite devices, and conspiracy to act against national security.”
Additional rulings in this case include:
• Pejman Soltani was previously sentenced to death by the Special Juvenile Criminal Court of West Azerbaijan Province for “direct involvement in the deliberate killing of a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”
• Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “commanding the murder.”
• Ali (Soran) Ghasemi was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “complicity in the murder.”
Numerous reports indicate that these verdicts are based on confessions obtained under torture, within judicial proceedings that lacked the most basic standards of a fair trial. The defendants were denied access to lawyers of their choosing, and court sessions were held in secrecy, violating the defendants’ fundamental rights.
These death sentences have been handed down at a time when the Islamic Republic is intensifying its repression—particularly through the execution of political and civil activists—in an effort to impose a climate of fear in society and prevent further uprisings, especially after its recent setbacks in regional conflicts with Israel.