Evin Prison is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for the housing of Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Iranian Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the high number of students and intellectuals detained there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government.
Abdolfattah Soltani is an Iranian human rights lawyer and spokesman for the Defenders of Human Rights Center. He co-founded the group with Mohammad Seifzadeh and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi. Along with Ebadi, Soltani served as a lawyer for the family of slain Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was allegedly tortured and murdered in Evin Prison in July 2003. Ebadi and Soltani, along with others, also represented jailed journalist Akbar Ganji during his imprisonment and long hunger strike. Soltani, who won the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, in 2009, served time in prison in 2005 and 2009, and was sentenced to 18-year prison sentence in 2012.
Gohardasht Prison is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km west of Tehran.
Majid Tavakoli is an Iranian student leader, human rights activist and political prisoner. He used to be a member of the Islamic Students' Association at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology, where he studied shipbuilding. He was arrested at least three times by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, during the student protests over the disputed Presidential Election of 2009. In response to allegations that he cross-dressed as a disguise to avoid arrest, a campaign protesting his imprisonment featured men posting photos of themselves wearing hijab.
Heshmatollah Tabarzadi is an Iranian democratic activist. Tabarzadi has been arrested several times on charges related to his political activities, most recently in December 2009. In October 2010, a court sentenced him to nine additional years in jail and 74 lashes, a sentence that was reduced to eight years on appeal.
Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian human rights activist. She is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. Mohammadi has been a vocal proponent of mass feminist civil disobedience against the mandatory hijab in Iran and a vocal critic of hijab and chastity program of 2023. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years' imprisonment for establishing and running "a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty." She was released in 2020 but sent back to prison in 2021, where she has since given reports of the abuse and solitary confinement of detained women.
Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was a political prisoner in Iran who was executed on 1 June 2014. His execution was highly controversial due to accusations that Khosravi did not receive due process or fair treatment during his trial or leading up to his death.
Jafar Kazemi was a political prisoner in Iran who was sentenced to death for co-operation with the Iranian opposition group People's Mujahedin of Iran and was hanged in Evin Prison on January 24, 2011, along with another political prisoner, Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei. His execution was widely covered by the press and brought international attention to the human rights situation in Iran.
Navid Afkari Sangari was an Iranian wrestler who was sentenced to death and executed in Shiraz after having been accused and convicted of murdering a security guard during the 2018 Iranian protests; sources from outside Iran also cited convictions on other charges related to Afkari's participation in the protests, while Iranian sources denied that the case had any connection to the protests. Afkari had filed a complaint with the Iranian judiciary, and stated in an audiotape recording that was smuggled from prison, that his initial confession had been obtained under torture; the Iranian judiciary denied the torture claims, and Iranian state media broadcast a recording of the confession. There were worldwide calls for Afkari to be pardoned, including by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, and by then U.S. president Donald Trump. Afkari's brothers Vahid and Habib were sentenced to 54 and 27 years, respectively, in prison in the same case.
Habib Afkari Sangari is a political dissident who was imprisoned in November 2018 for participating in August 2018 protests in Shiraz.
This list reports the notable citizens, civil and political activists, students, journalists, lawyers and athletes who have been arrested in Iran during the ongoing protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. There is no clear information about the whereabouts and the situation of many of them.
Mohsen Shekari was a 22-year-old Iranian man who was executed by the state of Iran after being convicted of injuring a member of Iran's Basij militia and being accused of Moharebeh, an Arabic word translating to "waging war against God".
Death sentences during the Mahsa Amini protests is a list of Iranian citizens sentenced to death or charged with crimes punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran during the Mahsa Amini protests. Following rushed trials that were widely criticized by human rights organizations, the Islamic Republic has executed eight protestors, Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi, Saeed Yaghoobi and Mohammad Ghobadloo. Dozens of protesters have been charged with offenses that are punishable by death in Iran.
Mohammad Boroughani is an Iranian man facing a death sentence for his participation in the Mahsa Amini protests. He was found guilty of Moharebeh, which translates to "Waging War Against God," and was sentenced to death. Boroughani and another death-row inmate, Mohammad Ghobadloo, have emerged as new faces of outrage in Iran in response to the political executions of Mahsa Amini protestors. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Karaj's Rajayi-shahr Prison on January 9, 2023, when word spread that Boroughani and Ghobadloo had been sent to solitary confinement before of their scheduled execution. Boroughani's execution was temporarily halted two days later. Boroughani's trial on October 29, 2022, was also notable because it was the first trial directly linked to the Mahsa Amini protests, which drew widespread condemnation from human rights organizations and the international community.
Mohammed Ghobadlou was an Iranian man executed for his participation in the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests. He was charged with murder and moharebeh, which translates to "waging war against God", and was sentenced to death. He was accused of running over Iranian special police units in Parand city with a car, killing Farid Karampour Hassanvand and injuring five of police units.
Mohammad Mehdi Karami was a 21-year-old Iranian-Kurdish man who was executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran for his involvement in the Mahsa Amini protests. He was convicted of Fisad-e-filarz for allegedly being involved in the killing of a Basij militiaman during protests in Karaj commemorating the 40-day anniversary of Hadis Najafi's death. Karami was executed alongside 39-year-old volunteer children's coach Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, another man who was also convicted of Fisad-e-filarz for his alleged involvement in the same killing. Both Karami and Hosseini asserted their innocence, and human rights organizations have accused Iranian authorities of using "shoddy evidence" to convict them.
Isfahan Central Prison, also called Dastgerd Prison, is a prison in south Isfahan, Isfahan province, Iran, on the Zobahan freeway. There have been numerous accounts of human rights abuses against prisoners there. It is highly crowded prison, and there are plans to replace it with a new prison located outside the city.
Masoud Kazemi is an Iranian journalist and human rights activist. He is best known in Iran for his extensive reporting on political and economic corruption, particularly the Babak Zanjani case.
Majid Jamali Fashi was an Iranian martial artist, the holder of a world bronze medal in kickboxing, and was accused of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi on the orders of Israel. He was executed after the trial.
Pakhshan Azizi is a Kurdish-Iranian human rights activist currently recognized as a political prisoner in Iran. In July 2024, she was sentenced to death on charges of "armed rebellion against the state". She was additionally given a four-year prison term for alleged affiliation with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). Her legal representatives have denied these allegations.
