upreme Court Upholds Death Sentence of Kurdish Political Prisoner Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heydaranlou

Branch 9 of Iran’s Supreme Court has officially upheld the death sentence of Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heydaranlou, a Kurdish political prisoner from the village of Sagrik, located in Chaldoran City, West Azerbaijan province.

According to a reliable source, the final verdict was formally communicated to Mr. Hosseinnezhad on March 25, 2025, at Urmia Central Prison.

Mr. Hosseinnezhad was originally sentenced to death in July 2024 by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Urmia, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, on the charge of “rebellion” (Baghi) through alleged membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He had appealed the ruling, and the case was sent to the Supreme Court for review in August 2024.

He was arrested by Iranian border guards on April 13, 2023, near the Chaldoran border. After initial interrogation, he was transferred from the border guard detention center to the Intelligence Ministry’s detention facility in Urmia.

Mr. Hosseinnezhad was held for nearly 11 months in solitary confinement, during which time he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture aimed at forcing a confession to participating in an armed clash involving the PKK. He was reportedly coerced into signing pre-written statements prepared by intelligence agents.

During his detention, he was allowed only two brief phone calls to his family and was denied access to legal counsel or family visitation. Despite his request for a lawyer of his choice, the Ministry of Intelligence blocked access, and the court proceeded to sentence him without considering his defense or submitted evidence.

At his trial, Mr. Hosseinnezhad denied all charges, stating that on the date of the alleged armed clash, he had been traveling to Turkey with his family.

The Intelligence Ministry, however, claimed—without presenting any material evidence—that due to the 2015 death of his brother-in-law, Mostafa Nouri, who was fatally shot by border guards while engaging in cross-border trade, Mr. Hosseinnezhad held a grudge and therefore aided the PKK in retaliation. Judge Najafzadeh reportedly issued the death sentence in a brief trial session, relying solely on “judge’s intuition” (elm-e-ghazi) rather than verifiable evidence.

Mr. Hosseinnezhad is currently being held in Ward 2 Reception Unit of Urmia Central Prison. He was born in 1985, is married, and the father of three children. In recent years, he had been working as a cross-border porter (Kolbar) to provide for his family.