Political Prisoner on Death Row Transferred to Solitary in Urmia

Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, a political prisoner sentenced to death, has been transferred to solitary confinement following an order from the head of Urmia Central Prison.

According to a report by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, on Tuesday, April 28, political and ideological prisoners at Urmia Central Prison were allowed to hold in-person meetings with their families for the first time in approximately three months. During these visits, a soldier reportedly behaved insultingly toward the prisoners’ families during a search, prompting a protest from Mehrab Abdollahzadeh.

According to the source, following the visit and while returning to his ward, the political prisoner was shackled with handcuffs and leg irons and transferred to solitary confinement as a punitive measure by order of Peyman Khanzadeh, the warden of Urmia Central Prison. Mehrab Abdollahzadeh, born on March 15, 1998, in Urmia, was arrested at his workplace on October 22, 2022, by agents of the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising.

Based on the report, he was held for 38 days in an IRGC intelligence detention center, where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture to force a confession regarding participation in protests and the murder of a Basij member. However, informed sources state that a video of the murder scene held by security agencies shows no trace of his presence, and he has consistently denied the charges. According to an informed source, throughout the interrogation stages and in court, he refused to accept the allegations and requested a review of his mobile phone’s location data to prove he was not at the scene.

Furthermore, his family remained unaware of his fate during the first 38 days of his detention, a period during which he was denied access to a lawyer and family visits.

Following the conclusion of interrogations, his case was referred to Branch 7 of the Urmia Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office and subsequently sent to Branch 1 of the Urmia Islamic Revolutionary Court. After three sessions, the court issued a death sentence on September 19, 2024, which was formally served to him in prison on October 21 of that year.

Following an appeal by his lawyers, the case was sent to the Supreme Court and referred to Branch 9. On December 18, 2025, the judge for the Implementation of Sentences notified him that his death sentence had been upheld and requested that he sign a petition for clemency. Ultimately, in late February 2026, the Supreme Court rejected the political prisoner’s request for a retrial.