Hussain Hazbavi 
A revolutionary court in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia has sentenced five Kurdish men to death for their alleged roles in the 2022 anti-regime protests, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported on Monday.
The five individuals — Ali Ghasemi, Pejman Soltani, Kaveh Salehi, Rezgar Beikzadeh Babamiri, and Tifur Salimi Babamiri — were arrested for participating in demonstrations in the cities of Bukan and Baneh during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising, which erupted following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police.
According to KHRN, eight other defendants connected to the same case were sentenced to prison terms and financial penalties.
The rights group criticized the court proceedings as fundamentally flawed, stating that the verdicts relied solely on reports by the Ministry of Intelligence and forced confessions obtained under duress. No independent evidence or due legal process was reportedly observed during the trials.
KHRN added that the five men were detained between April and May 2023 and were held at the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center in Urmia, where they were denied access to legal counsel during most of their pre-trial detention.
