Warning of the Imminent Danger of Execution of Political Prisoner Pakhshan Azizi Following the Rejection of Her Second Request for Retrial
8-April-2025
Category: Prisoners
6 April 2025
News Group: Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement: The political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi’s second request for retrial has been denied.
According to “Breathing in Confinement,” the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Maziyar Tataei, lawyer for Pakhshan Azizi, has reported that her second request for retrial has been rejected.
According to a statement by Maziyar Tataei, the lawyer for Pakhshan Azizi—a journalist and political prisoner currently held in Evin Prison—“The branch of the Supreme Court responsible for the case rejected the second request for retrial submitted by Pakhshan Azizi’s lawyers without even requesting the trial file for review, and declared the defense arguments of her lawyers to be unsubstantiated. Such a conclusion by the reviewing branch would require examining the trial file—which unfortunately was not done.”
On 23 July 2023, Pakhshan Azizi was sentenced to death and four years in prison by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, presided over by Judge Hojjat al-Islam Iman Afshari, on charges of armed rebellion (baghi) through membership in opposition groups. On 6 February 2025, Branch 9 of the Supreme Court had previously rejected her first request for retrial of the death sentence. This marks the second rejection of a retrial request for her death sentence.
Breathing in Confinement, the human rights news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, warns of the imminent danger of the execution of Ms. Pakhshan Azizi—a journalist, social worker, and political activist—and calls on human rights organizations to take urgent action to prevent the implementation of this unjust sentence.
Extrajudicial executions carried out through an unfair and opaque legal process are among the clearest examples of systematic human rights violations and reflect the ruling system’s policy of repression and intimidation through the judiciary.