On Sunday, January 26, judicial authorities in Evin Prison have transferred Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani, two political prisoners on death row for supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), to Ghezel Hesar prison, according to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The event has raised fears about their possible execution.
According to the report, Evin Prison officials removed Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani from wards 8 and 4 of the prison on Sunday morning under the pretext of a visit to the infirmary. Hours later, the two political prisoners had yet to return to their wards.
Following several hours of no information, cellmates and relatives of these political prisoners expressed concern over the risk of their execution. A group of political prisoners held a protest gathering in front of the prison guard office.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Nili, a lawyer, announced on the social network X on Sunday that a request for a retrial for Behrouz Ehsani “was filed last week and referred to one of the Supreme Court branches yesterday, Saturday.”
The transfer of these prisoners to an undisclosed location has also caused concern among other prisoners, and they gathered in front of the prison guard office, chanting slogans in protest against the possible execution of the two prisoners, including “This is the final message; if you execute, there will be an uprising,” “Death to the dictator,” “By the blood of our comrades, we stand to the end,” and “I will kill the one who killed my brother.”
Behrouz Ehsani Eslamloo, 70, and Mehdi Hassani, 48, were sentenced to death in mid-September 2024 by Branch 26 of the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by Iman Afshari, on charges of “rebellion, enmity against God, and corruption on earth.”
Other charges attributed to the two prisoners include “gathering classified information, assembly and collusion against national security, and membership in the PMOI/MEK.”
Amnesty International recently highlighted the “horrifying increase in executions” in Iran and called on Iranian authorities to immediately revoke the death sentences of these two political prisoners.
According to previous reports from human rights sources, at least 54 political and security prisoners currently face death sentences in Iranian regime prisons on charges such as “rebellion, enmity against God, and corruption on earth.”
