On Wednesday, 16 April 2025, Heydatollah Farzadi, the head of Evin Prison, announced that five political prisoners are to be transferred to Qezel-Hesar Prison by the end of the day.
The prisoners — Vahid Bani Amerian, Akbar (Shahrokh) Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, SeyedPouya Ghobadi, Mohammad Taghavi — have all been sentenced to death. The transfer order was issued by Judge Iman Afshari of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, which sentenced the five men in December 2024.
They were convicted on charges of the main opposition group that the Iranian authorities consider hostile to the regime.
Following the prisoners’ resistance to the transfer, Farzadi reportedly threatened to use force and authorised intervention by prison guards if necessary. In response, the administration of Evin Prison locked down Ward 4, where the men are currently held. Since early morning, prisoners have been kept in isolation, cutting off communication and preventing any protest or collective action from fellow inmates.
The planned relocation to Qezel-Hesar Prison — one of Iran’s primary execution sites — has raised serious concerns among human rights observers and the prisoners’ families. The prison is notorious for its harsh conditions and its role in carrying out death sentences, often without prior notice to families. The sudden transfer and isolation measures have heightened fears that the executions could take place imminently and without external oversight.
So far, due to an international pressure campaign via calls to Amnesty International, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights (OHCHR), as well as social media posts, these executions have been prevented from happening, however we must keep up these activities to ensure that these executions do not take place.
