Two Kurdish political prisoners, Mohammad Faraji and Raouf Sheikh Maroufi, sentenced to death in Bukan

Hengaw – Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Mohammad Faraji and Raouf Sheikh Maroufi, two Kurdish political prisoners held in Bukan Central Prison and detained during the Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) protests, have been sentenced to death after nearly three years in custody.

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Sheikh Maroufi, 24, and Faraji, 23, both residents of Bukan, were sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Mahabad on charges of moharebeh (“waging war against God”) and efsad-e fel-arz (“corruption on earth”), two capital offenses under Iranian law.

Separate hearings were held in the autumn, and the death sentences were formally communicated to the two men on February 24, 2026, inside Bukan Central Prison.

Sheikh Maroufi was arrested on December 26, 2022, and Faraji on February 21, 2023, during security operations carried out by Intelligence Ministry agents in Bukan. Sources report that both arrests involved the use of severe physical force. They were initially transferred to an Intelligence Ministry detention facility.

After several months of interrogation at the Intelligence detention center in Urmia — during which they were subjected to physical and psychological torture — the two men were transferred on June 10, 2023, to Bukan Central Prison. Since then, they have remained in detention amid prolonged legal uncertainty.


According to informed sources, the defendants were subjected to intense physical and psychological pressure during interrogations in Urmia in order to extract forced confessions.