The Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh has sentenced Kurdish civilian Nasser Bekrzadeh to death on charges of “espionage for Israel”, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported.

The verdicts came within days of similar sentences for three other Kurdish men, Edris Ali, Azad Shojaei and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, adding to a recent spate of death sentences handed down in espionage cases.

Asghar Jahangiri, the spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, confirmed on 5 November that three people had been sentenced to death for “spying for Israel” and “involvement in the assassination of [the Iranian nuclear scientist] Mohsen Fakhrizadeh”. 

The following day, West Azerbaijan’s judiciary announced that four people had been sentenced to death in separate cases for ‘spying for Israel and collaborating with the Mossad’.

With Bekrzadeh’s sentence, five prisoners in Orumiyeh Central Prison now face execution on charges of “espionage for Israel”, and their cases have been referred to Iran’s Supreme Court.

According to the information obtained by KHRN, the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have requested the Supreme Court’s urgent approval of the sentences and immediate executions.

The details of the five Kurdish prisoners sentenced to death for “espionage for Israel” are as follows:

Bekrzadeh, 25, from Orumiyeh, was first arrested by IRGC intelligence agents in Orumiyeh on 9 August 2023. After a few weeks, he was temporarily released under an agreement to cooperate with Iran’s security services. 

However, he was re-arrested by IRGC Intelligence on 2 January 2024 and held for several months in the IRGC’s Al-Mahdi base detention centre in Orumiyeh before being transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison. 

His trial took place on 2 November 2024 in Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Najafzadeh, who sentenced him to death on charges of “espionage for Israel”.

Three other Kurdish detainees – Edris Ali and Azad Shojaei from Sardasht, West Azerbaijan Province, and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul from Qaladze, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – were arrested by IRGC intelligence agents in Sardasht in late June 2023 and subjected to severe torture for about eight months in the Ministry of Intelligence detention centre in order to extract forced confessions. 

The trial of these three civilians was held on 23 September 2023 in Branch Two of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Shahin, and all three prisoners were sentenced to death about a month later. Five others were sentenced to prison terms in the same case.

Shahin Vasaf, a 28-year-old from Salmas, West Azerbaijan Province, was arrested by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in Orumiyeh on 21 September 2022. 

Vasaf was subjected to severe torture in the Ministry’s detention centre in order to extract a forced confession of “spying for Israel”, before being transferred to Orumyeh Central Prison. 

His trial took place at Branch Three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh, presided over by Judge Reza Najafzadeh, without the right to a lawyer of his choice.

On 3 October 2023, he was informed in prison that he had been sentenced to death for “espionage for Israel”.