On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, Evin Prison warden Heydatollah Farzadi, known for his brutality, announced that five political prisoners sentenced to death—Vahid Bani Amrian, Seyed Mohammad Taghavi, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, and Shahrokh Daneshvar Kar—must be transferred from Ward 4 of Evin Prison to Ghezel Hesar Prison by the end of the day, under orders from the infamous judge Iman Afshari. In response to prisoners objecting to the transfer, Farzadi reportedly threatened to forcibly move them using prison guards.
Under Farzadi’s orders, the halls of Ward 4 of Evin were locked down since this morning, and the prisoners have been isolated to prevent any possibility of protest.
These prisoners were sentenced to death in December 2024 by Branch 26 of Tehran’s so-called Revolutionary Court, presided over by notorious judge Iman Afshari. The charges included “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK),” “assembly and collusion against security,” “armed rebellion against the state,” “forming a group with the aim of disrupting national security,” and “destruction of public property using a launcher.” Ghezel Hesar Prison is one of the regime’s primary execution sites, where executions are routinely carried out.
Previously, on January 27, 2025, and April 2, 2025, three other political prisoners—Behrouz Ehsani Eslamloo, Mehdi Hassani, and Seyed Abolhassan Montazer—who were also sentenced to death on similar charges, were suddenly transferred from Evin to Ghezel Hesar Prison.
#Urgent – On April 16, Evin Prison chief Farzadi ordered the forced transfer of 5 political prisoners—sentenced to death for supporting @Mojahedineng, to Ghezel Hesar. This is a prelude to mass execution.#StopExecutionsInIran #FreeIran2025 pic.twitter.com/46MB1XIOlG
— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) April 17, 2025
Separately, four Baluch political prisoners with confirmed death sentences are at imminent risk of execution. On April 8, 2025, the request for a retrial by death row political prisoner Abdolrahim Qanbarzehi Gorgij was rejected. Previously, the death sentences for three others in the same case—Eidu Shahbakhsh, Abdolghani Shahbakhsh, and Soleiman Shahbakhsh (who was only 12 years old at the time of the alleged offense)—were upheld by the regime’s Supreme Court, and their retrial requests were also denied.
In a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission, as well as the European Union and its member states, to take immediate action to save the lives of political prisoners sentenced to death.