Iran’s Supreme Court overturns death sentences of five Kurdish political prisoners detained during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising
Hengaw – Sunday, October 26, 2025
The death sentences of five Kurdish political prisoners from Bukan — Rezgar Babamiri, Pejman Soltani, Soran Qasemi, Kawa Salehi, and Tayfor Babamiri — who were arrested during the Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) uprising and later sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary, have been overturned by the Supreme Court due to the “lack of jurisdiction of the presiding judge and the issuing court.”
According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Branch 39 of Iran’s Supreme Court annulled the death sentences of Tayfor Salimi Babamiri (47), Soran Qasemi (28), Pejman Soltani (30), Kawa Salehi (40), and Rezgar Babamiri (42), citing that the judge who issued the verdict did not hold a valid judicial position at the time and that the court that issued the ruling was not located in the jurisdiction where the alleged acts took place. The case has been referred to the Mahabad Revolutionary Court for retrial.
The ruling follows an appeal filed by attorneys Osman Mazin, Behrouz Kia, and Nejat Alipour, and was officially communicated to the prisoners’ families on Saturday, October 25, 2025.
According to attorney Osman Mazin, the Supreme Court ruled that the death sentences were invalid because the judge who issued them “held no official judicial post at the time” and the court lacked local jurisdiction. As a result, the court ordered the transfer of the case to a competent and equivalent court in Mahabad.
Mazin added that his client, Rezgar Babamiri, along with 13 other defendants in the same case, had been held incommunicado for months without access to family, lawyers, or medical care, and that serious procedural violations occurred throughout the trial, including the unlawful transfer of the case to Urmia and hearings held without all defendants present.
Hengaw has learned that these five prisoners, along with several co-defendants who had been released on bail, were recently acquitted by the Urmia Criminal Court of the charge of “financing terrorism.”
In July 2025, Tayfor Salimi Babamiri, Soran Qasemi, Pejman Soltani, Kawa Salehi, and Rezgar Babamiri had been sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court on charges of “armed rebellion (baghi)” and “Waging war against God (moharebeh)”, and to 15 years in prison each on charges of “membership in terrorist organizations.”
The verdict, issued on July 7, 2025, sentenced Soran Qasemi, Kawa Salehi, and Pejman Soltani to three death sentences each, Rezgar Babamiri to two, and Tayfor Salimi Babamiri — who had been released on bail of 5 billion tomans — to one death sentence.
In addition to the death sentences, the five prisoners were collectively sentenced to 75 years in prison (15 years each).
Furthermore, eight other individuals involved in the same case — Jwanmard Mam Khosravi, Ahmad Mamehzadeh, Salar Daghdar, Siamak Eyni, Heyman Kermanj, Jalil Moloudi, Hossein Hosseinzadeh, and Sware Azizzadeh — were sentenced to long prison terms and fines on charges including “membership in insurgent groups,” “collaboration with a hostile government,” and “acting against national security.”
Another defendant, Salahaddin Ahmadi, was acquitted of some charges, but his case remains open pending a re-examination of the charges.
These individuals were arrested in the months following the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising and were subjected to enforced disappearance and severe torture while being forced to make televised confessions against themselves.
