Kaveh Rafoosheh executed in Sanandaj despite public protest

Hengaw – Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Kaveh Rafoosheh, a 35-year-old Kurdish man from Sanandaj (Sine), was executed in the city’s Central Prison despite a public protest outside the facility the previous night, where residents and civil society activists called for the execution to be halted.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Rafoosheh was executed in the early hours of Tuesday, August 18, 2026. He had been transferred to solitary confinement on Sunday, August 16, in preparation for the execution.

Informed sources told Hengaw that Rafoosheh had been involved in a street altercation in Sanandaj about three years earlier that resulted in a killing. He subsequently turned himself in to law enforcement authorities and was sentenced to death by a Sanandaj Criminal Court on the charge of “premeditated murder.”

Videos obtained by Hengaw show residents and civil society activists gathering outside Sanandaj Central Prison on the evening of Monday, August 17, chanting “No to executions” and calling for the execution to be halted while efforts were made to secure clemency from the victim’s family. Despite the protest, the judiciary carried out the execution early the following morning.