Uncertainty Over Fate of Five Political Prisoners Amid Imminent Execution Risk
14-August-2025
Category: Prisoners
14 August 2025
News group: Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement – More than a week has passed since the forced and violent transfer of five political prisoners, yet there is still no precise information on their condition or whereabouts.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, on Friday, 8 August 2025, five political prisoners sentenced to death – Akbar Danshvar Kar (Shahrokh), Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Beni-Amrian, Babak Alipour, and Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi – were transferred from Greater Tehran Prison (Fashafouyeh) to an undisclosed location. Since then, their families have had no contact or visits and are deeply concerned for their safety.
Eyewitness reports indicate that the transfer was carried out with violence and beatings. Families have called on the international community, media, and human rights organisations to investigate the prisoners’ situation, warning that silence could pave the way for the unlawful implementation of their death sentences. The Islamic Republic’s history of enforced disappearance of political prisoners has heightened these concerns.
These five political prisoners were sentenced to death on 25 November 2024, by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, on charges of “armed rebellion (baghi),” “corruption on earth (efsad-e fel-arz),” and “collaboration with anti-government groups.”
In a statement posted on the social media platform X on Friday, 8 August, Amnesty International warned of the “imminent risk of execution” for these prisoners, stating that their sudden transfer could be a prelude to carrying out the death sentences.
Breathing in Confinement condemns these unlawful actions and human rights violations, considers any possible execution of these prisoners as an act of enforced disappearance and a threat to their lives, and calls on the media and international bodies to take urgent action and follow up on their situation.