Isfahan Court sentences political prisoner Mahmoud Mehrabi to five years in prison after death sentence overturned

Hengaw – Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Iran’s judiciary has sentenced political prisoner Mahmoud Mehrabi to five years in prison, along with internal exile and social restrictions, following the annulment of his death sentence by the Supreme Court.

According to reports received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the 36-year-old from Mobarakeh, Isfahan, currently held in Dastgerd Prison, was convicted by the Criminal Court and Revolutionary Court in Mobarakeh on multiple charges: five years for “inciting and provoking people to war and bloodshed,” three years for “ineffective provocation of forces,” one year for “propaganda against the state,” and one year for “insulting the Supreme Leader and the founder of the Islamic Republic.”

He also received additional penalties, including two years of exile from his birthplace, a two-year ban on online activity, and two-year prohibitions on foreign travel and obtaining a passport. Under Article 134 of Iran’s Penal Code, only the heaviest sentence—five years—will be served.

Mehrabi’s death sentence, issued in May 2024 for “corruption on earth,” was overturned in October by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court, which acquitted him of the capital charge and referred the remaining allegations to lower courts, his lawyer Babak Farsani said.

Mehrabi has been targeted due to prior whistleblowing against senior Mobarakeh officials, prompting fabricated charges by extra-legal state-affiliated actors.

First arrested in February 2023, released on bail in March, and re-arrested within hours, Mehrabi has since faced multiple new charges, including “publishing criminal content” and “insulting religious figures.”