Rasht court reimposes death sentence on Gilak political prisoner Zahra Shahbaz Tabari
Hengaw – Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, a 67-year-old electrical engineer, civil activist and political prisoner from Rasht, has been sentenced to death for a second time by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Rasht, presided over by Judge Ahmad Darvish Goftar. The ruling comes despite the fact that her previous death sentence had been overturned by Iran’s Supreme Court.
According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Judge Ahmad Darvish-Goftar once again sentenced Shahbaz Tabari to death on May 28, 2026. She was charged with "baghi (armed rebellion), through membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)."
Her initial death sentence, issued by the same court branch in October 2025, was overturned by the Supreme Court on Jan. 27, 2026, and the case was referred back to Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Rasht for retrial. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the court once again imposed the death penalty.
Sources close to Shahbaz Tabari’s family described the retrial as resembling a security interrogation rather than a judicial proceeding.
“The hearing lasted about 30 minutes. Judge Darvish-Goftar left after only 20 minutes, and the final 10 minutes were effectively conducted in the presence of a security officer,” a source familiar with the case told Hengaw.
According to the family, the original trial held last year was conducted via video conference, lasted less than 10 minutes and took place without access to a lawyer of her own choosing. She was represented solely by a court-appointed attorney.
Family members maintain that the case is based on fabricated and unreliable evidence, including a piece of cloth bearing the slogan “Woman, Resistance, Freedom” and an unpublished audio message. They emphasize that no evidence has been presented demonstrating any organizational, structural or military affiliation between Shahbaz Tabari and any political group.
Shahbaz Tabari is an electrical engineer, a member of the Iranian Construction Engineering Organization and holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Energy from the University of Borås in Sweden.
She was arrested on April 16, 2025, after security forces raided her home, searched the premises and confiscated electronic devices. She was subsequently transferred to Lakan Prison in Rasht, where she remains imprisoned.
She had previously been detained for three months over peaceful social media activity and was later released under electronic monitoring before her most recent arrest.
