Student Faces Execution After Iran's Supreme Court Rejects Retrial

The Islamic Republic's Supreme Court has rejected a retrial request for a 22-year-old student sentenced to death, according to his lawyer.

Mahmoud Behzadi-rad said on Wednesday that the court dismissed the request for Ehsan Faridi "in less than an hour, without a thorough review,” and he now faces a potential death penalty.

The case was assigned to Branch 29 of the Supreme Court to consider the retrial request. Behzadi-rad said he plans to file a new petition in person on Thursday.

The lawyer said the case contains serious procedural flaws. 

He argued that if the Iranian government had not declared that the country was operating under "wartime" conditions, the maximum sentence for his client would have been five years in prison. Given the circumstances, however, authorities planned to carry out the death penalty.

Faridi was arrested in March 2024 and released on bail. Authorities first sentenced him to six months in prison on charges of "propaganda against the Islamic Republic."

They later changed the charge to "corruption on Earth," which carries the death penalty under Iranian law.

The rejection increases concerns about Faridi's fate and raises the possibility that the case could be sent to the executions unit for implementation of the sentence.