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Akbar Novruz

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An Iranian political prisoner sentenced to death on charges of alleged espionage and collaboration with Israel is reportedly at imminent risk of execution after being transferred to solitary confinement, according to the Norway-based rights group Hengaw, AzerNEWS reports.

The group said that Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, a 34-year-old former MMA champion, coach, and international referee, was moved from a high-security ward in Evin Prison to solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar Prison.

According to Hengaw, the case comes amid a broader wartime crackdown in Iran, where authorities have intensified arrests, executions, and pressure on dissenting voices while warning that criticism could benefit the country’s enemies.

Rights organizations and reformist commentators have increasingly argued that wartime conditions are being used to justify tighter internet restrictions, broader repression, and harsher treatment of political prisoners amid heightened tensions involving the United States and Israel.

Hengaw stated that Judge Abolqasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Khani Shakarab to death through what the organization described as a highly opaque judicial process.

According to the rights group, the sentence was later upheld by Branch 39 of Iran’s Supreme Court and referred for implementation despite a recent request for judicial review submitted by the prisoner’s relatives.

A source familiar with the case reportedly told Hengaw that Khani Shakarab was denied access to a lawyer of his choosing during interrogation and trial, while the conviction was allegedly based solely on forced confessions obtained under pressure.

The organization also claimed that Khani Shakarab had been living in Türkiye before being detained by Iranian security forces during a religious pilgrimage trip to Iraq at the request of a relative. He was later transferred to Iran.

His brother, Esmail Khani, was also reportedly arrested in connection with the same case and is currently serving a prison sentence in Ardabil Central Prison.

The developments come as Amnesty International stated this week that global executions reached their highest recorded level in more than four decades in 2025, with Iran accounting for the majority of the increase.

According to Amnesty’s annual report, Iranian authorities carried out at least 2,159 executions last year, more than double the figure recorded a year earlier.

“A shameless minority are weaponizing the death penalty to instill fear, crush dissent and punish marginalized communities,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in the report.