Political Prisoner Manouchehr Fallah at Grave Risk of Execution

According to Emtedad, Manouchehr Fallah, a political prisoner in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison, has been sentenced to death by Branch One of the Rasht Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ahmad Darvish Goftar, which was upheld by the Supreme Court within the last week. Given that his case has been referred to the Rasht Criminal Sentence Enforcement Unit, Manouchehr is at grave and imminent risk of execution.

Manouchehr is a 43-year-old father of one from Rasht. He is a tattoo artist who was working as a labourer to make ends meet at the time of his arrest at Rasht Airport in the summer of 2023.

The political prisoner was sentenced to death on the charge of moharebeh (enmity against God) by Branch Two of the Rasht Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Ali Darvish Goftar which was upheld by Branch Six of the Supreme Court. He also received a year of imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the system” through wall writing, which he has already served. His first appeal was rejected on 24 October 2025. The Supreme Court overturned his sentence on the second appeal, referring his case back to a court of equal standing for retrial on 1 February 2026. 

According to his lawyer, faces the death penalty for allegedly detonating a very small “sound device” at 00:30 on 1 June 2023 at the entrance to the Gilan Judiciary. An expert report valued the damage to the metal door and stone façade at 15 million tomans (330 euros). No injuries were reported and services reportedly continued the next day. He was initially summoned on bail of 200 million tomans (4,500 euros) and later charged with “propaganda against the state”, “insulting the leader” and “destruction”. The trial court applied Article 687 of the Islamic Penal Code, which concerns damage to public-utility infrastructure causing disruption of services, to classify the act as destruction intended to disturb public order and confront the government. 

His lawyer previously argued that Article 687 was misapplied, that there was no public harm and that the sentence is disproportionate. He stated: “What is attributed to my client is a very small explosion with no serious harm, at a time and place where no citizens were present,” and asked, “What harm to society justifies answering it with a human being’s execution?”

It is unclear whether the legal objections raised by his lawyer were addressed during his retrial and the subsequent Supreme Court decision.

In a letter written to his daughter from prison on the eve of her 16th birthday, Manouchehr wrote: “Asal jan, they have imprisoned me for a crime I didn’t commit. I have wronged no one, stolen no wealth, taken no bread from anyone’s table. I have not stolen oil rigs, nor sat on a judge’s bench to issue unjust verdicts. My only crime has been to speak out against poverty, inequality, and injustice, because I refused to stay silent in the face of all this oppression. And yet, in this path, I have neither harmed anyone nor resorted to violence.”

According to the Emtedad report, “Manouchehr Fallah is currently under severe psychological pressure due to the repeated upholding and overturning of his death sentence.”