Iranian security forces have arrested political activist and former futsal referee Hamid Haj Jafar Kashani, 43, after a demonstration on North Karegar Street in Tehran on Sunday, 27 April 2025. Videos from the scene show the regime’s security forces in plain clothes agents surrounded Kashani, violently arrested him, and forced him into an unmarked vehicle.
Moments earlier, Kashani had raised a handwritten placard reading “Death to the principle of the Supreme Leader” and chanted “Death to Khamenei.” A second slogan on the sign declared, “Until the mullah is shrouded, this homeland will not be free.”
Kashani has previously been arrested on charges of supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), which itself can be enough to carry a death sentence in the criminal regime of the mullahs. He is currently subjected to physical torture and risks the threat of being executed. The PMOI has warned about his conditions and called for his immediate release.
During earlier incarcerations, Kashani was repeatedly pressured to appear on state television to disavow the group.
Sunday’s detention is Kashani’s third. In February 2020 he was sentenced by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to three years and six months for “propaganda against the state” and “membership in the PMOI.” After serving terms in Rasht, Evin and Greater Tehran prisons, he fled to Turkey, only to be deported and jailed again for a further year in Evin. A separate verdict in December 2020 added eight months for “anti-state activity,” a two-year prohibition on political associations, and two months of compulsory labor for regime institutions.
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Kashani’s political activism has also cost him his sporting career. He was barred from officiating top-flight matches in 2017 on orders from the Football Federation’s security office.
The Iranian judiciary has executed several political detainees in the last year.