Kurdish political prisoner Mehrab Abdollahzadeh faces immediate execution after retrial denied

Hengaw – Saturday, February 21, 2026

The request for retrial submitted on behalf of Kurdish political prisoner Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, who has been sentenced to death in connection with the Jin, "Woman, Life, Freedom" (Jiyan, Azadi) movement, has been rejected by Iran’s judiciary, placing him at serious risk of execution.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Branch 39 of Iran’s Supreme Court recently rejected the retrial request for Abdollahzadeh, a 27-year-old Kurdish man from Urmia. Although a renewed retrial request has been filed, no order has been issued to halt the implementation of his death sentence.

Hengaw warns that amid escalating regional tensions and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s pattern of intensified repression during times of crisis, there is a serious risk that this inhumane sentence could be carried out. The death sentence was issued following a non-transparent judicial process.

Abdollahzadeh’s death sentence had previously been upheld in full by Branch 9 of the Supreme Court. On December 18, 2025, the ruling was formally communicated to him, and he was instructed to submit a request for clemency.

In the summer of last year, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Urmia, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, sentenced Abdollahzadeh to death on charges of baghi (“armed rebellion”). According to previous reporting by Hengaw, the case file accuses him of involvement in the killing of a Basij member.

Mehrab Abdollahzadeh was abducted by government forces in the autumn of 2022 during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and transferred to a security detention facility in Urmia. After several months of torture and interrogation, he was moved to Urmia Central Prison, where he remains on death row.