Rapper Mehnam Navab Safavi sentenced to death over January protests

Hengaw – Friday, July 24, 2026

An Isfahan Revolutionary Court has sentenced Mehnam Navab Safavi, a 22-year-old Persian rapper detained during the January 2026 protests, to death on the charge of moharebeh (enmity against God).

According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Branch 5 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Hemmatinejad, imposed the death sentence, and the verdict has been formally served. Navab Safavi is currently imprisoned at Isfahan Central Prison (Dastgerd Prison).

Informed sources told Hengaw that the court convicted Navab Safavi of moharebeh through participation in the destruction of public property, as well as "propaganda against the state," "assembly and collusion," and "encouraging people to kill one another."

One of the principal grounds cited by the Revolutionary Court in support of the moharebeh charge and death sentence was merely "writing protest slogans on walls."

Intelligence Ministry forces arrested Navab Safavi in the Sheikh Sadough neighborhood of Isfahan during the January 2026 protests, without presenting a warrant. After undergoing interrogation in security detention facilities, he was transferred to Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.