Yousef Ahmadi remains at risk of execution after one of two death sentences overturned
Hengaw – Thursday, September 10, 2026
Yousef Ahmadi, a Kurdish political prisoner from Baneh held at Sanandaj Central Prison, remains at risk of execution after one of two death sentences against him was overturned and replaced with 10 years in prison and payment of blood money. Ahmadi has spent more than six years in prison without a single day of leave. The death sentences followed proceedings marked by violations of fundamental rights and confessions obtained under severe physical and psychological torture.
According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Branch 1 of the Criminal Court of Kurdistan Province in Sanandaj overturned one of Ahmadi’s death sentences on September 3, 2026. The sentence, issued under the principle of qisas (retribution in kind), was replaced with 10 years in prison and payment of blood money. He nevertheless remains at risk of execution under a separate death sentence.
Ahmadi was sentenced to death in two separate cases by criminal and revolutionary courts in Kurdistan Province.
His second death sentence, imposed on the charge of “armed rebellion” (baghi), was upheld twice in 2023 and 2024 by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Nayyeri. His lawyers have submitted a third request for retrial to the Supreme Court.
In September 2023, Branch 1 of the Sanandaj Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Saeedi, sentenced Ahmadi to death on the charge of “armed rebellion” through “membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.”
The proceedings against Ahmadi and the imposition of the death sentence involved serious violations of fair-trial standards. Confessions attributed to him, obtained under severe physical and psychological torture and sustained pressure by security agencies, formed the principal basis of the case and resulting sentence.
Several vertebrae in Ahmadi’s spine were damaged under torture, and he repeatedly lost consciousness after being beaten with electrical cables while being forced to confess. Government forces also threatened to harm people close to him in an effort to force him to accept the charges.
Ahmadi was injured when arrested and had previously suffered a fractured arm. Despite his condition, he received no adequate medical care while held at the Sanandaj Intelligence Department detention facility. He had also been under specialist neurological and psychiatric care for epilepsy before his arrest but was denied access to treatment during interrogation.
Three other individuals linked to the case were sentenced to a combined 65 years in prison on the charge of “assisting in armed rebellion.” Mohammad Karimi received 25 years, while Baset Karimi and Mohammad Feyzi were each sentenced to 20 years. The sentences were formally communicated to them on September 3, 2023.
All four political prisoners were denied fundamental legal rights, including access to a lawyer, during interrogation and trial proceedings and even after their transfer to prison.
Government forces arrested Yousef Ahmadi with force on April 26, 2020. Mohammad Karimi, Mohammad Feyzi, and Baset Karimi were similarly arrested a day earlier, on April 25, 2020. Following prolonged detention at the Sanandaj Intelligence Department detention facility, all four were transferred to Sanandaj Central Prison.
