Iranian political prisoner Babak Shahbazi faces an imminent risk of execution following a Supreme Court decision to uphold his death sentence, the Norway-based human rights organization Hengaw said on Monday.
Hengaw said Shahbazi, a father of two, was convicted of “spying for Israel” and “corruption on earth” in proceedings it described as “grossly unfair and based on forced confessions extracted under severe torture.” Iranian authorities have not commented on the allegations.
According to Hengaw, parts of the evidence cited in court included casual conversations Shahbazi had with friends, some of whom were also allegedly tortured into implicating him. It said the trial was marked by “contradictions” and a “lack of credible evidence.”
Shahbazi, 44, worked as a cooling and heating systems technician at data centers, including Iran’s telecommunications company, before his arrest in December 2023, Hengaw said. He was initially held in Evin prison.
The group added that additional charges against him — including involvement in smuggling operations, a bombing, and sending a message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — were unsupported by documentary evidence and rested solely on coerced testimony.
Hengaw also alleged that one of the charges in the case targeted Shahbazi’s teenage daughter for “leading protests in 2009,” despite her being only three years old at the time.
Earlier in August, Iran’s judiciary announced that Rouzbeh Vadi, a nuclear scientist and member of the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute under the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, had been executed for allegedly spying for Israel.
Vadi, who held a doctorate in reactor engineering, had co‑authored a 2011 research paper with senior Iranian nuclear experts later killed during the June conflict with Israel, according to his Google Scholar profile.
Iran’s Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei recently said that more than 2,000 people had been arrested during and after the 12-day war, some of whom face the death penalty on charges of “organizational collaboration with the enemy.”
Iran Human Rights reported that 21 people were executed during the June conflict period, including six men charged with spying for Israel.
Among earlier executions was Mohammad-Amin Mahdavi-Shayesteh, accused of leading a Mossad-linked cyber group.
