Urgent Call to Save PMOI Supporter Yaghoub Derakhshan from Execution in Iran

Iran: Regime’s Judiciary Sentences Political Prisoner Yaghoub Derakhshan, Supporter of the PMOI, to Death in Lakan Prison, Rasht

Urgent Call to Save Political Prisoners on Death Row

On Thursday, July 24, 2025, the regime’s judiciary officially informed political prisoner Yaghoub Derakhshan—a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) currently held in Lakan Prison, Rasht—that he has been sentenced to death. This verdict was issued in an irregular judicial process conducted via videoconference and without the presence of a lawyer, by the Revolutionary Court of Rasht, presided over by the criminal judge Ahmad Darvish-Goftar.

Yaghoub Derakhshan, 50, born in Ardabil and residing in Bandar Anzali, was arrested in April 2025 and sentenced under the regime-fabricated charge of baghi (armed rebellion). He had previously been arrested in July 2024 and released after several weeks of interrogation on bail.

Two weeks ago, on July 12, 2025, the judiciary sentenced three other political prisoners—Farshad Etemadifar, Masoud Jame’i, and Alireza Mordasi—to two death sentences each in Sheiban Prison, Ahvaz, on charges of membership in the PMOI. Twelve other political prisoners had already been sentenced to death on similar charges and are at imminent risk of execution.

The Iranian Resistance once again calls on the United Nations and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran to take immediate action to save the lives of prisoners on death row and to demand the release of all political prisoners.

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

26 July 2025