Iran’s Supreme Court denies second retrial for Kurdish political prisoner Hatem Ozdemir, heightening execution risk
Hengaw- Wednesday, May 14, 2025
The Iranian Supreme Court has rejected a second retrial request for Hatem Ozdemir, a Kurdish political prisoner from Ağrı Province in Turkish Kurdistan, further increasing the risk of his execution. Ozdemir, 29, has been detained for nearly six years and sentenced to death on the charge of moharebeh (waging war against God).
According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the rejection, issued on May 10, 2025, was formally communicated to his lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht.
The court dismissed the appeal despite significant contradictions in the case, including inconsistent ballistic reports, disputed evidence, and concerns about the manner of his arrest and the organization with which he was affiliated.
Originally arrested on July 2, 2019, during an IRGC ambush on PKK members near Chaldoran, Ozdemir was severely injured by mortar shrapnel and later transferred to the IRGC’s Ramazan Base in Urmia. He endured nearly 50 days of torture before being moved to Urmia Central Prison on August 19, 2019.
In May 2024, Branch 3 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, sentenced Hatem Ozdemir to death for moharebeh. Following an appeal, the case was referred to Branch 9 of the Supreme Court, which upheld the death sentence in September of the same year.
On March 9, 2022, after 33 months in pre-trial detention without access to a chosen attorney, the Khoy Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death for baghi (armed rebellion) and to five years in prison for membership in a terrorist group. That sentence was overturned in March 2023 by the Branch 9 of Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Ghasem Mazinani which ordered a retrial.
His retrial hearing was held on April 23, 2024, and on May 19, the court officially reissued the death sentence while he was held in Urmia Prison. Since his arrest, Ozdemir has also suffered from kidney stones and has been denied necessary medical treatment despite recommendations for surgery.
