Iran International:

Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned death sentences issued against five Kurdish men from Boukan who were arrested during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, ordering a retrial in a local revolutionary court, according to rights organizations.

Iran’s Supreme Court annulled the death sentences of Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri, Pejman Soltani, Ali (Soran) Ghasemi, Kaveh Salehi, and Tayfur Salimi Babamiri, five Kurdish citizens from Boukan detained during the 2022 anti-government protests.

The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported Saturday that Branch 39 of the Supreme Court reviewed the appeal filed by the defendants’ lawyers and referred the case back to the Mahabad Revolutionary Court for retrial.

In July, the Urmia Revolutionary Court had sentenced Babamiri and Ghasemi to three death sentences each, Soltani and Salehi to two each, and Salimi to one. They were charged with baghi (armed rebellion), moharebeh (enmity against God), and forming a rebel group.

Attorney Atman Mazin, representing Babamiri, said his client and 13 others were arrested after protests in Boukan and held in “very harsh conditions.” Nine others in the same case received prison and fine sentences.

Salimi was released in September 2023 after 18 months of pretrial detention and has since left Iran, while the other four remain imprisoned in Urmia.

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