Wednesday, February 19, 2025
HomeIran Human RightsStop executions in IranBehrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani Transferred to Ghezel Hesar, Facing Imminent Execution

Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani Transferred to Ghezel Hesar, Facing Imminent Execution

PMOI supporters Behrouz Ehsani (right) and Mehdi Hassani (left)

NCRI logo

Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani have been transferred from Evin Prison to Ghezel Hesar Prison and are at imminent risk of execution

Three weeks ago, the mullahs’ regime’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of these two prisoners on charges of membership in the PMOI

On the morning of Sunday, January 26, 2025, Ali Khamenei’s henchmen forcibly transferred political prisoners sentenced to death, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, from Wards 4 and 8 of Evin Prison to Ghezel Hesar Prison without prior notice. The executions of such inhumane sentences are carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Tehran.

Subsequently, inmates in Ward 4 of Evin Prison gathered in protest, chanting slogans such as “This is the final message; if you execute, there will be an uprising,” “Death to the dictator,” “By the blood of our comrades, we stand to the end,” and “I will kill the one who killed my brother.”

The death sentences for these two prisoners were initially issued on September 16, 2024, by the infamous “Iman Afshari,” head of Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. The charges included “rebellion against the state, enmity against God, spreading corruption on earth, membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), collecting classified information, conspiracy against national security, and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.” These sentences were later upheld on January 7, 2025, by the mullahs’ regime’s Supreme Court.

Seventy-year-old Behrouz Ehsani, a political prisoner from the 1980s, was arrested in Tehran on December 6, 2022, and transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, where he was subjected to torture. After receiving the death sentence, he sent a message to the Iranian people: “…This execution-driven regime cannot offer anything else. I will not bargain over my life with anyone and am ready to sacrifice my insignificant life for the liberation of the Iranian people…”

Political prisoner Mehdi Hassani, aged 48 and a father of three, was arrested on September 11, 2024, in Zanjan and subsequently transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, where he too endured torture.

Amnesty International, in its appeals on January 16 and January 23, called for the immediate cancellation of their death sentences, stating: “Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani were convicted of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz) and sentenced to death in Sep 2024 in relation to their alleged support of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a banned opposition group. Following their arrests in 2022, they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, to force them to self-incriminate. Their trial by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran was grossly unfair.”

On January 23, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the “systematic repression of human rights in Iran.” The resolution called for the release of political prisoners, particularly those sentenced to death, and demanded the abolition of the death penalty. It urged the European Council “to expand the EU sanctions to all those responsible for human rights violations, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i,…”

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

26 January 2025