Kurdish prisoner of conscience Mehdi Asgharzadeh executed in secret at Ghezel Hesar Prison

Hengaw – Wednesday, August 6, 2025

The death sentence of Mehdi Asgharzadeh, a Kurdish prisoner of conscience from Javanrud, was secretly carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. He was arrested ten years ago and sentenced to death nearly two years prior.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution took place early hours on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. Asgharzadeh, 35, was executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison. The state-affiliated Mizan News Agency, the official outlet of Iran’s judiciary, has confirmed the execution.

The death sentence had been upheld twice by the Supreme Court. According to the court ruling, his body would not be returned to his family. The execution was carried out while Asgharzadeh was denied the right to a final visit with his loved ones.

Hengaw had previously reported, citing informed sources, that Asgharzadeh was arrested in 2016 in Javanrud upon returning from Syria. After enduring two years of solitary confinement in Tehran, he was transferred to Dizelabad Prison in Kermanshah, where he spent the past eight years.

In the fall of 2023, Branch 2 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Kermanshah, presided over by Judge Shahrokh Moradi, sentenced him to death on the charge of “armed uprising against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and to three years in prison on the charge of “membership in the terrorist group ISIS.” The verdict was officially issued to him on December 16, 2023.

It is worth noting that in the court ruling—of which Hengaw has obtained a copy—it is explicitly stated that his body would not be handed over to his family after the execution.

During his detention, Asgharzadeh was subjected to severe torture and coerced into making forced confessions against himself.