Supreme Court Rejects Hatam Ozdemir’s Second Request for Retrial

The Supreme Court of Iran has rejected the second request for retrial submitted by Hatam Ozdemir, a Kurdish political prisoner and Turkish national.

According to a reliable source, the court issued its rejection on May 9, 2025, and the decision was formally communicated to his lawyer.

His first request for retrial had already been denied in March 2025 by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court.

Earlier, in September 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against this Kurdish political prisoner of Turkish nationality.

In May 2024, Branch 3 of the Urmia Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, sentenced Ozdemir to death on charges of “enmity against the state (moharebeh)”.

The court hearing took place on April 23, 2024, and the death sentence was officially communicated to him on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Urmia Prison.

Previously, on January 28, 2023, Branch 9 of the Supreme Court, presided over by Qasem Mazinani, had overturned the initial death sentence, and referred the case back to a parallel branch of the Urmia Revolutionary Court for reexamination.

On March 8, 2022, Branch 1 of the Khoy Revolutionary Court sentenced Hatam Ozdemir, son of Abdulrahman, to death on the charge of “armed rebellion (baghi)”, and to five years in prison for “membership in the PKK”. The sentence was officially issued on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, in Urmia Prison.

The last hearing in this case took place in late summer 2021 in Branch 1 of the Khoy Revolutionary Court.

Hatam Ozdemir was arrested on the night of July 2, 2019, following an armed clash between PKK forces and IRGC Hamzeh Headquarters near the Chalderan border region.

During the confrontation, Ozdemir fell unconscious due to a mortar shell injury and was then transferred to the IRGC Intelligence Detention Center in Urmia.

He was moved to Urmia Central Prison in late August 2019, after two months of interrogation at the IRGC detention center.