Death row Kurdish political prisoner Pezhman Touberehrizi held in Evin Prison
Hengaw – Wednesday, May 27, 2026
The Iranian judiciary has kept Pezhman Touberehrizi, a Kurdish political prisoner from Kermanshah (Kermashan), on death row in Tehran’s Evin Prison after convicting him of “spreading corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel arz) through alleged membership in the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK).
According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the 32-year-old political prisoner was sentenced to death in September last year and remains imprisoned in Evin Prison.
Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammadreza Amouzad, sentenced Touberehrizi to death on September 1, 2025. The ruling was formally communicated to him inside prison one week later, on September 8.
Informed sources told Hengaw that hearings in his case were held on July 27 and August 16, 2025, without access to an independent lawyer. During the proceedings, the judge allegedly pressured him to accept the charges and cooperate with the Ministry of Intelligence in exchange for exile to Saravan Prison instead of a death sentence. After Touberehrizi rejected the proposal, he was summoned to another court session on August 16 and asked to sign his own execution order. He refused to comply.
Sources further stated that Ministry of Intelligence agents raided his family home on July 13, 2025, in an attempt to force him into making confessions. During the raid, agents searched the house and confiscated mobile phones belonging to family members. Amid the incident, his stepmother, Fariba Vahedi, who had cancer, suffered a fatal heart attack and died.
According to informed sources, security forces were also present during Vahedi’s funeral ceremony in the village of Bilehvar, Kermanshah, in an effort to prevent anti-government slogans from being chanted. Family members had reportedly been threatened beforehand and warned not to publicly disclose that her death had been triggered by the sudden raid carried out by security forces.
Iranian security forces arrested Pezhman Touberehrizi in Tehran on January 28, 2025, and transferred him to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, a detention facility operated by the Ministry of Intelligence.
Throughout his detention, he was reportedly subjected to torture, including electric shocks and severe beatings, and was denied access to medical treatment for weeks. After approximately two and a half months of interrogation, he was eventually transferred from Ward 209 to the prison’s general ward.
