Protest detainee Salah Yousefi faces execution over alleged Israel and US links

Hengaw – Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Salah Yousefi, a Kurdish protest detainee from Javanrud in Kermanshah (Kermashan) Province, is facing the charge of moharebeh (waging war against God) over allegations of links to Israel and the United States.

According to information obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, his family was informed of the charge only days after his arrest through a verbal notice from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Sari. No written notice, summons, or official ruling has been provided to the family, and the case has not been publicly announced.

Yousefi, originally from Javanrud and residing in Ramsar in Mazandaran Province, was arrested twice in connection with the protests. He was first detained by IRGC intelligence forces on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 and released after one day. He was rearrested by the same body a day later and transferred to an IRGC detention facility in Sari.

A source familiar with the case said that after repeated inquiries by the family at security institutions in Ramsar and Sari, IRGC officials in Sari verbally informed them that Yousefi had been charged with “moharebeh” and that a verdict had been issued, with execution cited as the sentence. The family was told that Yousefi had “deep ties” with Israel and the United States and that the execution would be carried out in Tehran. Officials also warned that they would no longer respond to any further inquiries from the family.

The source added that, according to IRGC claims, Yousefi has likely been transferred to security detention facilities in Tehran.

Yousefi, who is unmarried, owned a mobile phone shop in the Aramesh shopping complex in Ramsar. He was arrested at his workplace by security forces.

Hengaw has learned that since his arrest, Yousefi has been denied his most basic legal rights, including access to a lawyer. His family has also been kept entirely in the dark about the judicial process and the status of his case.

These developments come amid recent statements by Tehran’s prosecutor, who said that the cases of several protest detainees charged with “moharebeh” had been referred to court and were being handled on an expedited basis. At the same time, Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholam-hossein Mohseni-Ejei, warned that “there will be no leniency this time.” The convergence of such threats with rushed indictments has heightened concerns over imminent executions and the risk of summary or extrajudicial killings.

Hengaw has previously warned that opaque and accelerated judicial proceedings against protest detainees, combined with the authorities’ routine use of “moharebeh” charges to frame protests as security threats, significantly increase the risk of swift death sentences and serious violations of due process.