Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 24 January 2026: State media reported the executions of Kurdish minorities Amanaj Karvanchi and Arsalan Sheikhi for a bus explosion in 2023. The date and location of the executions have not been disclosed.
According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, two men named Amanj Karvanchi and Arsalan Sheikhi were executed at an undisclosed location. Arsalan was arrested with his wife, Nasimeh Eslamzehi, on 6 September 2023. State media previously reported the third defendant’s name as “Hassan.”
A report previously published by Etemad newspaper stated: “Following police interrogations, it was established that the two men and the woman who were passengers on the bus were responsible for the explosion. Investigations showed that a man named Arsalan had joined ISIS. It also became clear that Nasim, Arsalan’s wife, came from a family that had joined the group some time earlier. Further investigations revealed that the third individual was a man named Hassan, who made homemade bombs.”
The three defendants were sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) for the bus explosion that resulted in the death of a one-and-a-half-year old child, by the Tehran Revolutionary Court in October 2025. There is no news about the fate of Nasim Eslamzehi, a Baluch woman who was pregnant at the time of her arrest. According to human rights defender, Arash Sadeghi, Nasim gave birth to her baby in prison and was held in the solitary confinement cells of Ward 209 of Evin Prison for forty days with her baby. Nasim was told that her two-year-old daughter who was with her at the time of her arrest was taken into care.
Article 279 of the IPC defines moharebeh (enmity against God) as: “drawing a weapon on the life, property or honour of the public or causing them terror, in a way that creates an environment of insecurity.” When a person draws a weapon on one or several specific individuals with personal motives, but their action does not have a public element, and also a person who draws a weapon on the public but does not create an atmosphere of insecurity due to their incompetence, they shall not be considered a mohareb (person who commits moharebeh).
Article 281 of the IPC stipulates that “bandits, robbers and smugglers who resort to arms and disrupt the security of the public and roads, shall be considered mohareb.”
Article 282 of the IPC sanctions the death penalty in cases of moharebeh. However, power is granted to judges to impose the alternative punishments of crucifixion, amputation of the right hand and left foot, or domestic exile away from the defendant’s hometown.
Moharebeh charges are used to impose death sentences for a wide range of offences. They include armed robbery and espionage, and they have also been used against political prisoners affiliated with opposition groups, as well as protesters.