Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned death sentences issued against five Kurdish men from Boukan who were arrested during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, ordering a retrial in a local revolutionary court, according to rights organizations.
Iran’s Supreme Court annulled the death sentences of Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri, Pejman Soltani, Ali (Soran) Ghasemi, Kaveh Salehi, and Tayfur Salimi Babamiri, five Kurdish citizens from Boukan detained during the 2022 anti-government protests.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported Saturday that Branch 39 of the Supreme Court reviewed the appeal filed by the defendants’ lawyers and referred the case back to the Mahabad Revolutionary Court for retrial.
In July, the Urmia Revolutionary Court had sentenced Babamiri and Ghasemi to three death sentences each, Soltani and Salehi to two each, and Salimi to one. They were charged with baghi (armed rebellion), moharebeh (enmity against God), and forming a rebel group.
Attorney Atman Mazin, representing Babamiri, said his client and 13 others were arrested after protests in Boukan and held in “very harsh conditions.” Nine others in the same case received prison and fine sentences.
Salimi was released in September 2023 after 18 months of pretrial detention and has since left Iran, while the other four remain imprisoned in Urmia.
Mazin noted that the trial violated due process — defendants were denied access to family, lawyers, and medical care, and some hearings were held without all accused present. He added that the alleged crimes were not legally proven.
Babamiri, who was arrested for providing medicine and treatment to wounded protesters, wrote from prison that he endured 130 days of torture, including simulated executions, electric shocks, and suffocation.
According to his lawyer, the Supreme Court cited procedural flaws and the lack of local jurisdiction as grounds for overturning the sentences, sending the case to a new competent court.
Mazin expressed hope that “the new prosecutor and court will uphold the law and ensure fair proceedings.”
He added that last week a criminal court in West Azerbaijan acquitted the same defendants of “terrorism financing” through medical aid distribution, though appeals on other sentences are still pending.
Amnesty International warned on October 16 that more than 1,000 people have been executed in Iran so far in 2025, many following unfair trials aimed at silencing dissent.
The rights group urged UN member states to take immediate action, calling the executions “a shocking spree” averaging four per day.
