08 April 2026 :
April 6, 2026 - IRAN. Yaghoub Karimpour faces imminent execution
Yaghoub Karimpour, an Azerbaijani Turkic citizen and member of the Yarsan religious minority with disabilities, faces imminent execution after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on charges of “espionage for Israel”, a verdict that he says was secured entirely through torture and forced confessions.
Karimpour, 43, from Miandoab in West Azerbaijan Province, was sentenced to death by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh in November 2025. Branch Nine of the Supreme Court subsequently confirmed the sentence.
An informed source in Orumiyeh, speaking to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), said: “The prisoner’s lawyer submitted a request for retrial to the relevant authorities, after the death sentence was upheld, but the Supreme Court has so far refused to provide a clear response to the request. Despite the wartime conditions, his family travelled from Miandoab to the Supreme Court in recent weeks, demanding clarification on the status of the case, but were told that although the retrial request had been registered, a branch had yet to be assigned.”
The source highlighted that the recent surge in executions of political prisoners has deepened the anxieties of Karimpour and his family, leaving them in a state of acute psychological distress.
Karimpour’s situation is further complicated by his serious medical needs. He has undergone spinal and lung surgeries and lives with a chronic neurological and psychiatric condition that requires continuous medical supervision and daily medication.
Since the onset of the war, access to his prescribed medications has been severely curtailed, and he is now relying on fellow prisoners for assistance with basic daily activities.
The source added: “This prisoner has repeatedly requested to be transferred to medical facilities outside the prison, but each time it has been refused on the grounds that his case carries a security classification. Since the start of the war, transfers of prisoners to medical facilities have been halted entirely.”
Background
Karimpour, born in 1982 in Miandoab, married, and a graduate of law from the University of Maragheh, was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence forces on 16 June 2025 and transferred to the Ministry’s detention facility in in Orumiyeh.
He later described shocking details of his arrest, interrogation and judicial proceedings in a letter published on 31 December 2025.
He reported being held for more than two months in inhumane conditions and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture for approximately two months to force him into making false confessions regarding “collaboration with Mossad agents and transmitting intelligence data”.
Following this period, he was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison, where he remains in the political prisoners’ ward.
Karimpour was denied the right to legal representation until his case was referred to Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Orumiyeh. The court session was held via video conference in mid-October 2025.
He was not able to defend himself effectively during the hearing and was sentenced to death by Judge Sajjad Dousti on the charge of “spreading corruption on Earth” (efsad-e fil-arz) through “espionage for Israel”, in a trial lasting less than 15 minutes.
On 8 November 2025, he was informed of the ruling in Orumiyeh Central Prison.
According to the letter, Karimpour – who is a beneficiary of the State Welfare Organisation, unemployed, and suffers from a severe physical disability requiring constant medication and treatment due to spinal surgery, lung surgery, and chronic mental health issues – was denied access to vital medication during his detention.
He emphasised that interrogators used the withholding of medication as a pressure tactic to extract forced confessions.
Karimpour stated that many of the declarations included in his file, which formed the basis of the “espionage” charge and the death sentence, were written under torture, duress, and at the dictation of interrogators.
In another part of the letter, he clarified that he had no position or access to governmental, military, or security centres and fundamentally had no access to ordinary, confidential, or classified information, and therefore strongly denied sending information to any institution or individual.
The letter also mentioned severe pressure applied through the simultaneous detention and interrogation of his wife. According to the prisoner, interrogators forced him to sign false statements by threatening to intensify the torture of his wife. He described this as a clear instance of psychological torture which, given his mental state and underlying health conditions, has left devastating effects on his well-being.
