39 Detained, Access to Lawyers and Families Denied, Brutal Interrogations Underway

Center for Human Rights in Iran

Concerns are intensifying over the safety, health, and legal rights of at least 39 individuals detained during the memorial for Khosro Alikordi, a prominent human rights lawyer found dead in his office in Mashhad.

Detainees are being:

• Denied access to legal counsel
• Barred from contacting their families
• Subjected to harsh interrogation under extreme pressure
• Many held in solitary confinement
• Some have suffered injuries during their violent arrests
• Others have medical conditions requiring immediate care
• Some charged with grave crimes, including capital offenses

“Brutalizing and detaining mourners and peaceful citizens who gathered to honor a slain human rights lawyer, disappearing them into solitary confinement, and threatening them with capital charges is not law enforcement—it is terror,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

“The international community must demand the immediate release of all those detained in Mashhad. Every hour these detainees remain in custody places their lives at risk, and full responsibility for any harm to them lies squarely with the Iranian authorities,” Ghaemi said.

On December 12, 2025, state security forces violently arrested dozens of participants in the memorial service, including Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi and Javad Alikordi, the attorney and brother of Khosro Alikordi, indicating the targeting of human rights defenders and suppressing peaceful assembly and the right to mourn.

According to the Mashhad Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor, at least 39 individuals were detained during the ceremony. Some were transferred to Vakilabad Prison, while others have been held at Soroush Detention Center. Most remain in detention, with many held in solitary confinement. The IRGC Intelligence Organization has been identified as the arresting authority.

A source told the CHRI that several detainees have received one- to two-month detention orders and are currently undergoing interrogation under extreme pressure.

CHRI has been told that several of the activists, including Narges Mohammadi, are facing charges such as “cooperation with Israel,” “assembly and collusion against the system,” “propaganda against the state,” and “disturbing public opinion.”

Families of some of the detained report that detainees are being denied contact with their families and access to legal counsel.

Relatives have also expressed serious concern for their loved ones' physical well-being, as several were injured during violent arrests and others have pre-existing medical conditions requiring urgent medical care.

According to HRANA, the judicial cases of some detainees have been referred to Branch 902 and Branch 901 of the Investigative Unit of the Mashhad Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office. A small number (exact number unknown at present) of the detainees have been released on bail.

As of December 15, 2025, 33 of the 39 people known to have been arrested have been identified. They include:

Tayebeh Nazari, Heydar Chah Chamandi, Mohammad Hassan Sadeghian, Yaser Dehestani, Amin Vosoughi-Nia, Milad Fattah, Mohammadreza Babaei, Davoud Alikordi, Ahmad Alikordi, Iraj Alikordi, Kamran Alikordi, Mojtaba Alikordi, Behrouz Alikordi, Javad Jalali, Mahmoud Khanali, Hamed Rasoulkhani, Mehdi Rasoulkhani, Amir Khavari, Pouria Najarzadeh, Mohammad Hossein Hosseini, Hamed Zareh, Mohammad Hossein Boroumand Sharifi, Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Gholian, Pouran Nazemi, Hasti Amiri, Abolfazl Abri, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Nora Haghi (Vahideh Haghparast), Ali Adinehzadeh, Hassan Bagherinia, Javad Alikordi, and Hamed Hosseini

CHRI urges the international community, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, all relevant UN Special Rapporteurs, and governments worldwide, to demand that the Iranian authorities immediately release all of the individuals arrested during the memorial service for Khosro Alikordi.

Numerous family members of the detainees have taken to social media to advocate for their arrested loved ones and provide critical updates on their condition and situations (see below).

A group of 20 prominent Iranian activists issued a statement (see below) calling for the immediate release of those detained. In addition, political prisoner Ahmadreza Haeri released a letter (see below) from Qezel Hesar Prison urging authorities to free the detainees, and woman political prisoner Sakineh Parvaneh (see her letterbelow) started a hunger strike in solidarity.

Families Give Updates on Detainees

“My sister is ill and requires ongoing medications for her kidneys and liver.”

According to the sister of Poran Nazemi, during previous imprisonments, she was given medications she was known to be sensitive to while undergoing surgery, which caused serious health problems.

Her sister warns that her current situation in detention, combined with lack of access to life-saving medications, endangers her health, and she requires specialized and continuous medical care. She wrote:

“After an assault by security agents in the hospital and being given a Ceftriaxone injection, she suffered cardiac arrest. Although she was resuscitated, she now suffers complications from the medication. My sister is ill and requires ongoing medications for her kidneys and liver.

“You took my sister to the hospital until the brink of death, and now you have shackled her with her sick body. You arrested her with beatings, and we still have no news of her condition and health. The responsibility for the health and life of my sister lies with you, the mercenaries of the Islamic Republic.”

“My mother suffers from breast cancer and requires life-saving medications.”

The daughter of Alieh Motalebzadeh, a journalist, women's rights activist, and the Vice-President of the Association for the Defence of Iranian Press Freedom, published an update on her Instagram (the story is no longer online) about her mother.

“My mother, Alieh Motalebzadeh, after three days with no news of her whereabouts, made a phone call on Sunday night, December 14, at around 10:30 p.m. At the beginning of the call, she emphasized that the conversation was being conducted on speakerphone and was under surveillance by a security agent.

“During the call, Alieh Motalebzadeh stated that at the time of her arrest, she—like other detainees—was subjected to violence and physical assault. According to her, the interrogator at Branch 901 issued a one-month detention order against her on the charge of ‘assembly and collusion.'

“She also said that up until today she had been held in the custody of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, and that on the same day she was transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence (Mashhad Intelligence Department). Following this transfer, due to the severe beating she had endured, she was examined by a doctor at the Mashhad Intelligence Department and received an initial medical assessment.

“However, my mother suffers from breast cancer and has a history of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, and therefore requires specialized care and the regular use of life-saving medications—medications and care that, up to the time of this call, had not been available to her. Deprivation of this treatment could seriously endanger her health and life.

“Full responsibility for safeguarding the health and life of Alieh Motalebzadeh lies directly with the security and judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Nobel Peace Laureate Taken to Hospital Twice and Threatened with Death

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi made a brief phone call to her family late on December 14, 2025, after nearly three days of enforced disappearance, reporting that she was violently beaten and arrested by plainclothes agents during her arrest. She said she was repeatedly struck on the head and neck, threatened with death, taken twice to a hospital emergency room, and accused of “cooperating with Israel.”

Mohammadi told her family she does not know which security body is detaining her and urged her lawyers to file an immediate complaint over the violent arrest. The family's full statement follows below:

“Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi made a brief phone call to her family late on December 14 2025, after nearly three days with no information about her whereabouts, and described details of her arrest, her family said.

“In this very short and compressed call, she explained that on December 12 2025 in front of a mosque near Mashhad where the memorial ceremony for Khosro Alikordi Iranian lawyer and human rights activist was being held, she was attacked by plain clothed agents with severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck and was then violently arrested while being threatened and told: ‘We will put your mother into mourning,' a direct death threat.

“Narges Mohammadi said in the call that the intensity of the blows was so heavy, forceful, and repeated that she was taken to the hospital emergency room twice. She emphasized that she does not even know which security authority is currently detaining her, and that no explanation has been given in this regard. Her physical condition at the time of the call was not good, and she appeared unwell.

“In her conversation with her family in Iran, she asked her legal team to immediately and without delay file a formal complaint against the detaining security body and the violent manner of her arrest.

“According to Narges Mohammadi, during and after her arrest, she was accused of ‘cooperating with the Israeli government', and through the use of extreme violence, they attempted to eliminate her, as they had previously threatened to do. She said these were the same so-called ‘self-authorized' forces who, a few months ago, had also warned her lawyers in Tehran that they intended her ‘physical elimination.'”

“My sister was beaten and detained.”

The brother of prominent labor rights and women's rights activist Sepideh Gholian, who had just been released from prison only a few months ago in June, wrote on Instagram story on December 16, 2025:

“Four days have passed since my sister was beaten and detained during the seventh-day memorial ceremony for the late Khosro Alikordi in Mashhad. Currently, she has been issued a detention order on charges of ‘assembly and collusion to commit a crime against national security' and ‘propaganda against the state.' Sepideh made a brief phone call to her family two days ago, but we still have no information about the details of her detention or her condition.

“It has been only a few months since Sepideh's release, and in that time, our family tried to navigate the challenges and hardships of imprisonment and exile. Those nightmares have returned—this time, simply for attending the seventh-day memorial of a deceased lawyer.

“We are grateful to the generous people who, in these difficult times, have not forgotten Sepideh and other imprisoned family members.”

“She is denied the right to phone calls and access to a lawyer.”

The brother of Hasti Amiri, a woman human rights defender and campaigner for students' rights, wrote in an Instagram Story on December 15, 2025:

“Hasti had a brief phone call with her family last night that was clearly under intelligence surveillance, and unfortunately, as of this moment, we remain unaware of her place of detention.

“The Deputy Prosecutor of Mashhad told the family that a one-month temporary detention order has been issued, and that during the interrogation period she is denied the right to phone calls and access to a lawyer.”

“My father is 55 years old and has heart disease.”

Marzieh Adinehzadeh, whose 17-year-old brother, Abolfazl Adinehzadeh, was shot dead by security forces in October 2022 during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, wrote about the arrest of her father, Ali Adinehzadeh. The Adinehzadeh family is among the justice-seeking families who were represented by the late human rights lawyer Khosro Alikordi.

She wrote on December 16, 2025:

“By order of Hassan Hemmati-Fard, the Prosecutor of Mashhad, and Mohsen Vahidian Azimi, the Investigating Judge of Branch 901 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court, my father has been prohibited from making calls and from receiving visits.”

She wrote on December 15, 2025:

“According to information received from Vakilabad Prison, the conditions under which detainees are being held are alarming, and telephone contact has been cut off since 3:00 p.m. yesterday.

“My father, Ali Adinehzadeh, along with Dr. Bagherinia, Mr. Abri, and Chah-Chamani, has been separated from the other detainees arrested in connection with the memorial ceremony for Dr. Khosro Alikordi and transferred to another ward.”

In another post on December 15, 2025, she wrote:

“Yesterday, my father said during a phone call that his physical condition is not good. Today, we have had no contact with him. My father is 55 years old and has heart disease. From this moment, I declare that any harm to my father's health, whether during detention or after release, is the full and direct responsibility of the Islamic Republic.”

In another post on December 14, 2025, she wrote:

“Today, my family went to the Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office to follow up on the case of my father, Ali Adinehzadeh. At first, they were prevented from entering, but after persistent efforts, they were allowed in. No clear information was provided regarding his situation. Two charges were fabricated against him: ‘propaganda against the system' and ‘assembly and collusion.'”

“We are deeply concerned about his health and well-being.”

Hassan Bagherinia, a former faculty member of Hakim Sabzevari University, was arrested during the ceremony as well. He was sentenced to more than 10 years of imprisonment along with additional restrictions and penalties in March 2025. He was also arrested with his wife in June for speaking about the Iran-Israel war and was released on bail. He was represented by Khosro Alikordi. His daughter wrote in an Instagram story:

“My father, Hassan Bagherinia, is among those detained at the memorial ceremony for Dr. Khosro Alikordi. As his family, we are deeply concerned about his health and well-being. We would be grateful if you could raise our voices and those of the other detainees.”

Letter of Support From Iranian Activists and Filmmakers

A group of Iranian civil and human rights activists, including Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Sedigheh Vasmaghi, demanded in a statement published online the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained at the memorial of Khosro Alikordi. Their full letter follows:

“What occurred in Mashhad during the commemoration of the late Khosro Alikordi, an Iranian human rights lawyer, was a stark reflection of the worrying state of freedom and security, and, consequently, the inefficiency and lack of accountability of the authorities in today's Iran.

“As in the past, instead of protecting the right to hold memorial events and ensuring the safety of citizens, security forces attacked attendees and detained more than 40 people, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi; an action that more than ever demonstrates that the suppression of civil voices under the pretext of ‘disorder' is a premeditated display. We emphasize that the violent arrest of political and civil activists is not a reaction to ‘disruption of order,' but part of a continuous process of deliberately restricting civil society and silencing voices advocating for the right to self-determination, human dignity, and peaceful transition from tyranny.

“Undoubtedly, the full responsibility for any physical and psychological harm to the detainees lies directly with the Islamic Republic government and its agents.

“We, the signatories of this statement, reiterate that the deep political and social deadlock in the country can only be resolved through the restoration of sovereignty to the people. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, freedom seekers, human rights defenders, and all those in particular detained at the December 12 2025 memorial ceremony of Khosro Alikordi in Mashhad, Iran.”

Tehran, Iran

December 15, 2025

Signatories:

Khashayar Sefidi, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Mohammad Habibi, Mohammad Bagher Bakhtiar, Sedigheh Vasmaghi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Saeed Madani, Jafar Panahi, Abolfazl Ghadiani, Abdollah Momeni, Mehdi Mahmoudian, Mostafa Malekian, Mohammad Rasoulof, Abdolfattah Soltani, Hatem Ghaderi, Mohammad Najafi, Vida Rabbani, Manzar Zarrabi, Abbas Sadeghi, Mojgan Inanlou

Letter From Woman Political Prisoner Held in Evin Prison

Sakineh Parvaneh, a political prisoner held in the women's ward of Evin Prison, announced in a published letterthat she will go on a two-day hunger strike in protest against the security forces' treatment of the Khosro Alikordi family and the arrest of Alikordi's justice-seeking brother. Her full letter follows:

“The Islamic Republic claims to respect and honor the families of ‘martyrs.' Khosro Alikordi, a lawyer who, before being an attorney for his clients, was a friend, a brother, a companion, and a fellow comrade, was the son of a martyr. Today, we are mourning his suspicious death.

“Everyone knew of Khosro Alikordi's political differences with the government; however, what has been heard in recent days following his death has made the circumstances even more questionable.

“Now, Javad Alikordi, his dear brother—who is grieving and seeking justice for his brother's death—has also been arrested. A mourning brother who, in these difficult days, was a source of support and comfort for his brother's children.

“While offering my condolences to the Alikordi family, and in protest against what has been done to this family, I will undertake a two-day hunger strike on Sunday, December 13, and Monday, December 15, to be the voice of my oppressed loved ones.”

Sakineh Parvaneh

Women's Ward, Evin Prison

December 13, 2025

Letter From Political Prisoner Held in Qezel Hesar Prison

Ahmadreza Haeri, a human rights defender and anti-death penalty campaigner, currently held in Qezel Hesar Prison, wrote in a letter:

“The voice of truth will not be drowned out by the barking of your unleashed, collared dogs.

“The immediate release of all those arrested at the memorial ceremony for the late Khosro Alikordi is the demand of all of us, and responsibility for any violation of these loved ones' right to health lies with the entirety of the current ruling establishment.

“From behind the high walls of Qezel Hesar Prison, I loudly and unequivocally condemn the disrespectful and violent actions of security forces—whether in plainclothes or uniform—and their hired thugs against the memorial ceremony for the free-spirited lawyer and activist, the late Khosro Alikordi, as well as the mass arrests of civil society activists, including the courageous sisters Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Gholian, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Hasti Amiri, Pouran Nazemi, and the justice-seeking family of Abolfazl Adinehzadeh, among others.

“Among these, the beating of the photographer, journalist, and women's rights activist—my dear sister Alieh Motalebzadeh, who is undergoing treatment for a serious illness—has caused us even greater sorrow and concern. I think of Alieh's daughter, who at this very hour, in the loneliness of exile, must be overwhelmed with anxiety and dread for her mother. Truly, what kind of people are you, that Iranians are not safe from your repression—neither in their homeland nor in exile—and from its lasting consequences?

“On the day when, on July 25, 2025, security institutions ordered their agents to carry out a brutal and unprecedented assault on our ward in Unit Four—beating defenseless prisoners with fists and kicks, subjecting us to unprecedented violence, insults, and threats of death, and branding the ‘Bloody Saturday of Qezel Hesar' as an indelible stain on the judiciary, the Prisons Organization, and the entire ruling system—I warned many activist friends, especially those in the field of human rights, that ‘they have unleashed the dogs by removing their collars.'

“The same ones who, shortly before that, beat my honorable brother Arash Sadeghi in the darkness and isolation of alleyways, and then tried in cyberspace, through a cyber army, to discredit him so as to lower the cost of repressing him—what a vain illusion.

“The same ones who, for several days now, in violation of even their own laws, lured my fellow prisoner Reza Mohammad Hosseini to the prison administration building under false pretenses, and now, for five days, despite all inquiries, we have received no information about his condition or whereabouts—nor do we know where they have taken him or what they have done to him.

“A human being cannot treat another human being this way. They learned from 1988 that many of their forces still retained some trace of humanity, and so they turned to hiring thugs and assembling gangs of criminals—so that today they could trample Alieh's body, despite her illness, under the hooves of their inhuman beasts and arrest her; the same beasts who turned their hatred on the bodies of Narges and the others, beating them, and who even show no mercy to the grieving Alikordi family.

“But the voice of truth is heard above the barking of your unleashed dogs, and the courage of the best children of this people multiplies. Very soon it will be too late for you to realize how utterly alone you are before the vast multitude of tens of millions of people whom you have humiliated and from whom you have taken even the right to a normal life.

“The immediate release of all those arrested at the memorial ceremony for the late Khosro Alikordi—especially loved ones such as Alieh Motalebzadeh, who is battling a serious illness and for whom missing even a single dose of medication could be dangerous and disrupt her treatment—is the demand of all of us.”

Ahmadreza Haeri

Qezel Hesar Prison

Saturday, December 14, 2025

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