The Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the judiciary of Iran’s regime, reported that Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced a number of defendants in the Ekbatan case to the harshest punishments on charges including “corruption on earth,” collusion and assembly to commit crimes against the national security, and propaganda activities against the regime.
Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the judiciary of the Iranian regime, wrote that Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced several defendants in the Ekbatan case to the harshest punishments on charges of “corruption on earth,” assembly and collusion to commit crimes against the country’s internal security, and propaganda activity against the regime.
In a brief report published on the evening of Sunday, May 24, Mizan wrote: “According to the issued verdict, a number of the defendants in the case were sentenced to the harshest punishment on charges of corruption on earth, and the other defendants, based on the nature of their actions and the extent of their involvement, were sentenced to prison terms and supplementary punishments.”
The report did not mention the names of the defendants or the type of punishments and emphasized that since the verdict is not final, it is not possible to provide details about the case.
At the same time, HRANA, the news outlet of the Human Rights Activists in Iran organization, quoted a source familiar with the case as saying that Milad Armon, Navid Najaran, Mehdi Imani, and Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini — defendants in the case known as the Ekbatan Township case who were arrested during the nationwide 2022 protests — were sentenced to death by Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh (“waging war against God”). The court was presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.
According to the report, Amir Mohammad Khosh-Eghbal, Alireza Barmerz Pournak, Alireza Kafaei, and Hossein Nemati, other defendants in the case, were each sentenced to seven years in prison along with supplementary punishments.
According to the informed source, the ruling was verbally communicated to the defendants on Sunday without the presence or knowledge of their lawyers, and by the time the report was published, the attorneys had still not been informed. As a result, the lawyers were unable to file appeals.
Previously, all six defendants in the case had been sentenced to death, but the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court, and the case was referred to Branch 13 of Tehran Criminal Court for retrial.
In this part of the case, Branch 13 of Tehran Province Criminal Court No. 1 convicted Milad Armon, Alireza Kafaei, and Amir Mohammad Khosh-Eghbal on charges of participating in the intentional killing of Arman Aliverdi, a member of the Basij paramilitary force. Each of them was sentenced to pay an equal share of the full blood money compensation for one person and to five years in prison.
The Ekbatan Township case dates back to the nationwide protests of 2022. On October 26, 2022, Arman Aliverdi, a member of the Basij paramilitary force, was injured in Ekbatan Township while sent to suppress anti-regime protest rallies. He died two days later of his injuries.
Following his death, security agencies arrested more than 50 young residents of Ekbatan Township, and indictments were issued against a number of them.
Currently, hundreds of political prisoners and citizens detained during the protests are facing political and security-related charges in Iran’s prisons.
Human rights activists have warned that some of these prisoners are at risk of receiving, having confirmed, or facing the implementation of death sentences.
In one of the latest developments, Manouchehr Fallah, a political prisoner held in Lakan Prison in Rasht, was sentenced to death for a second time by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of the city. He had previously been sentenced to death in January 2025 on charges of moharebeh and supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
