A court in Tehran has sentenced three prisoners of conscience from Iran’s ethnic minorities, including a woman, to death on charges of waging war against God, Norway-based rights group Hengaw said on Sunday.
The defendants were identified as Nasimeh Eslamzahi, a woman from Iran’s Baluch minority; her husband, Arsalan Sheikhi, from a Kurdish minority community in the northwest; and a third man identified only as Hassan.
Eslamzahi is being held in Gharchak prison near Tehran, while Sheikhi and Hassan are detained in Evin Prison in northern Tehran, Hengaw said.
The case was overseen by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, who is known for issuing harsh sentences in political cases and was sanctioned by the United States in 2019 for his role in what Washington described as “unfair trials” and multiple death sentences.
Hengaw said the defendants were accused of involvement in a 2023 bus bombing that killed an infant but denied the charges during their trial.
Eslamzahi was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth to her daughter in prison. Hengaw said she and the baby were held for 40 days in solitary confinement in a cell with poor ventilation and inadequate lighting before being transferred to another ward.
The report comes a day after Iran executed seven political prisoners from ethnic minorities, including six Arabs and one Kurd, in what rights groups called a “grave violation” of international human rights and due process standards following torture and unfair trials.
According to Amnesty International, Iranian authorities have executed more than 1,000 people so far this year, the highest annual figure recorded by the group in at least 15 years.
