The Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi, who was sentenced to death in July on charges of “armed insurrection” and “membership of opposition groups,” is now at imminent risk of execution, according to a Feb. 10 statement by her lawyer Amir Raeisian.
Azizi is one of more than 50 political prisoners currently sentenced to death by Iran’s judiciary, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Iran’s government has continually targeted and oppressed children, women and men from ethnic and religious minority groups, as well as dissidents and members of the LGBTQ+ community in Iran. The Islamic Republic is the world’s most prolific executioner of children, women and men on a per capita basis.
ANALYSIS: Islamic Republic Steps Up Executions In Its Battle for Survival
Political prisoners facing the death penalty in Iran include:
- Verisheh (Wirishe) Moradi, a dissident from the Kurdish ethnic minority group in Iran
- Sharifeh Mohammadi, a Kurdish dissident accused of being affiliated with the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK)
- Ahmad Reza Jalali, an Iranian-Swedish disaster medicine doctor convicted on charges of “corruption on earth”
- Manouchehr Fallah, a tattoo artist who took part in the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests in Iran and;
- Shahriar Bayat, a retired employee of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Company who also took part in the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests
Raeisian confirmed on Feb. 10 that an application to request a judicial review of Azizi’s sentence had been rejected by Iran’s Supreme Court.
“The order to halt the execution that had been issued during the judicial review process was revoked on 1 February 2025 and referred back to the enforcement authorities. Unfortunately, the risk of execution is now imminent,” Raeisian said. “A key issue is that in rejecting the retrial request, the court simultaneously accused Ms Azizi of membership in both the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and PJAK (PKK). Not only is it unclear how she could be a member of both groups at the same time, but the authorities have yet to clarify which organization she was a member of that led to the issuance of the death sentence.”
Iranians living in Italy and supporting the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ gender equality movement in Iran called on the Italian government to give Azizi honorary citizenship so that the state could engage in negotiations to release her.
“Pakhshan Azizi’s story is a symbol of the regime’s repression, while the protests and strikes in Iran continue,” Mahnaz Lamei, a gender equality campaigner in Italy said in a Feb. 12 interview with the Paris-based Nova Radio station. “The sentence could be carried out any day, so for this reason we have asked the municipality of Florence to recognize her as an honorary citizen.”
Several human rights bodies and watchdogs as well as prominent Iranian activists, artists and musicians are campaigning for Azizi’s release.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, rights activist and political prisoner Narges Mohammadi shared a video on X of herself and several individuals, including the prominent film director Jafar Panahi, protesting outside Iran’s Evin prison, where they expressed solidarity with Azizi and Moradi. Mohammadi was temporarily released from prison on medical grounds in December.
“Until the death penalty is abolished, we are here until the end,” the statement on the Feb. 11 post said. “As a group of civil society activists, today we stand on this side of the wall alongside the families of male and female prisoners sentenced to death and we once again shout ‘abolish the death penalty.’”
“Varisheh Moradi’s family had been on the road all night. Her sister left her one-and-a-half-year-old child in Kurdistan and came to Tehran,” Mohammadi said. “Her elderly mother walked all night in the cold winter from Kurdistan to Tehran, eager to see her daughter, but Varisheh was not allowed to visit, and the family returned to Kurdistan without seeing her.”
“The international community must immediately urge the Iranian authorities to halt the execution of arbitrarily detained humanitarian aid worker Pakhshan Azizi, who was sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial before a Revolutionary Court last year,” Amnesty International said in a Feb.10 statement, following the rejection of Raeisian’s request for a legal review of her case.
Dr. Mai Sato, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran also expressed concern at the rejection in a Feb. 7 post on X.
“Deeply alarmed to receive reports that Iran’s Supreme Court has rejected the judicial review request for Pakhshan Azizi’s conviction & death sentence,” Sato said. “Her imminent execution would violate international human rights law. I urge Iranian authorities to immediately halt her execution.”
A petition calling for Azizi’s release on the Avaaz website, a U.S.-based charity promoting global activism, has gathered more than 660,000 signatures.
“We call on you to halt the execution of Pakhshan Azizi, to quash her conviction, and to release her immediately and unconditionally,” the petition said, in a statement directed at the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Eje’i. “We call on you to put a moratorium on all executions and abolish the death penalty in Iran.”
