On the morning of January 26, 2025, Iranian regime authorities forcibly transferred political prisoners Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani from Wards 4 and 8 of Evin Prison to Ghezel Hesar Prison without prior notice. Both prisoners have been sentenced to death in sham trials and such transfers are usually the precursor of carrying out the sentence of death row prisoners.
Following the news, inmates in Ward 4 of Evin Prison gathered in protest, chanting slogans against the regime, including “This is the final message; if you execute, there will be an uprising,” “Death to the dictator,” “By the blood of our comrades, we stand to the end,” and “I will kill the one who killed my brother.”
The death sentences for Ehsani and Hassani were initially issued on September 16, 2024, by the criminal judge Iman Afshari, head of Branch 26 of the regime’s so-called “Revolutionary Court” in Tehran. The charges included “rebellion against the state, enmity against God, spreading corruption on earth, membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), collecting classified information, conspiracy against national security, and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.” These sentences were later upheld on January 7, 2025, by the mullahs’ regime’s Supreme Court.
Behrouz Ehsani, 70, was a political prisoner during the 1980s. He was arrested in Tehran on December 6, 2022, and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, where he was subjected to torture. After the issuance of his death sentence, he wrote an open letter to the Iranian people, in which he wrote, “…after 22 months of uncertainty, a death sentence has been issued against me without any evidence. This executioner regime could not do otherwise…. I do not negotiate over my life…. I am ready for my life to be sacrificed for the freedom of the Iranian people.”
Political prisoner Mehdi Hassani, 48, father of three, was arrested on September 11, 2024, in Zanjan and subsequently transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, where he was subjected to torture.
The death sentence of Ehsani and Hassani was widely condemned inside Iran and across the world.
On January 16 and January 23, Amnesty International called for the immediate cancellation of their death sentences, stating, “Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani were convicted of ‘enmity against God’ (moharebeh) and ‘corruption on earth’ (efsad-e fel-arz) and sentenced to death in Sep 2024 in relation to their alleged support of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a banned opposition group. Following their arrests in 2022, they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, to force them to self-incriminate. Their trial by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran was grossly unfair.”
On January 23, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the “systematic repression of human rights in Iran.” The resolution called for the release of political prisoners, particularly those sentenced to death, and demanded the abolition of the death penalty. It urged the European Council “to expand the EU sanctions to all those responsible for human rights violations, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i,…”
This alarming development comes as Iran’s regime has increased pressure on political prisoners, especially supporters of the PMOI. Six other political prisoners have been sentenced to death by the regime on charges of supporting the PMOI. Prisoners are also being subjected to all types of torture, including being deprived of their most basic needs and rights.