Iran’s Supreme Court upholds death sentence of Kurdish political prisoner Azad Shojaei
Hengaw – Tuesday, June 3, 2025
The death sentence of Azad Shojaei, a Kurdish political prisoner from Sardasht currently held in Urmia Central Prison, has been upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. Shojaei was previously convicted on charges of “espionage for Israel” and “transporting equipment used in the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.”
According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the Supreme Court’s Branch 39, presided over by Judge Ghasem Hosseini Kouhkamari, recently confirmed the sentence and formally notified his attorney.
Azad Shojaei, a 32-year-old kolbar (border porter) from the village of Dule Germeh in Sardasht, was denied access to legal counsel and family visits during detention. For eight months, he was held incommunicado and subjected to severe torture, leading to forced confessions. He was later transferred to Urmia Central Prison.
Shojaei was tried alongside two other Kurdish men—Edris Ali from Sardasht and Rasoul Ahmad Mohammad from Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In October 2023, all three were prosecuted by Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court in Urmia, presided over by Judge Ghorban Shahini, on charges of espionage for Israel. Their death sentences were issued in November 2023.
Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri publicly confirmed the verdicts on November 5, 2024, nearly a year after their issuance and shortly after Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iranian military targets. Without naming the prisoners, Jahangiri claimed they had smuggled equipment used in the Fakhrizadeh assassination under the guise of alcohol trafficking.
The three were arrested in July 2023 by agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and held in its detention center in Urmia. Jahangiri stated that at least eight people were detained in the case, with three receiving death sentences in the initial phase.
Notably, on December 9, 2020, Hengaw reported that, following Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, Iranian security forces surrounded the city of Baneh, raided multiple homes, and arrested over 20 people. At the time, Hengaw published the names of nine detainees.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, was assassinated on November 27, 2020, in the town of Absard near Tehran. Iranian authorities have consistently accused Israel of orchestrating the attack.
