Report: Nine prisoners, including three kurds and one Afghan national, executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison, Karaj
Hengaw – Thursday, May 29, 2025
Over the course of this week, at least nine prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Tuesday and Wednesday. The executed included a political prisoner, three Kurdish prisoners, one Lor prisoner, and one Afghan national. The charges against them ranged from espionage for Israel to murder, rape, and drug-related offenses.
According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the death sentence of Pedram Madani, a 41-year-old political prisoner from Tehran, was carried out at dawn on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Madani had been sentenced to death on charges of espionage for Israel. He had recently been transferred from Evin Prison to Ghezel Hesar in preparation for his execution.
On the same day, five other prisoners were also executed in the same facility. They were identified as Hojjat Havassizadeh, a 36-year-old man from the Garavand region of Kuhdasht; Shahriar Aliabadi, 27, from Kermanshah (Kermashan); Seyed Abbas Laki, 37, from Khosrowabad village in Delfan; Afshin Ezzati, 33, from Tehran; and Majid Bahrami, also known as Majid Khalifeh, from Tehran.
According to Hengaw sources, Hojjat Havassizadeh had been imprisoned for five years, Aliabadi for three years, and the others for varying durations. All had been convicted on drug-related charges and sentenced to death by Iran’s judiciary.
Separately, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, three more prisoners were executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison, as reported by the state-affiliated Rokna news agency. One of those executed was identified as Hossein Yari from Khorramabad, who had been sentenced to death four years ago for first-degree murder. Alongside him, an Afghan national convicted of murder seven years ago and another unnamed prisoner convicted of rape were also executed.
Only four of the nine executions have been officially announced by state media. The remaining five have not been publicly acknowledged by state or judiciary-affiliated outlets.
