Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 11 November 2026: Peyman Farahavar, a poet and political prisoner convicted of property damage, is at imminent risk of execution after his sixth appeal was rejected and his case was referred to the Sentence Enforcement Unit.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, political prisoner Peyman Farahavar is at grave risk of execution in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison.
An informed source told IHRNGO: “Peyman was informed that his sixth appeal had been rejected by the Supreme Court and that his case has been sent to the Sentence Enforcement Unit. Although the formal notification was served three days ago, judicial authorities had verbally notified him about a month prior that his execution order had already arrived at the Sentence Enforcement Unit and had only been delayed by the prosecutor's office.”
The 37-year-old Gilaki father and poet was working as a seasonal labourer at the time of his arrest in Rasht on 17 August 2024. Through his literary work, the poet engaged in environmental and civil advocacy in Gilan, highlighting the destruction of forests and rangelands, rampant villa construction, agricultural land-use conversion, the rights of local farmers and damaging economic policies, while on several occasions voicing direct criticism of the authorities and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Without access to his lawyer of choice, Peyman was sentenced to death by Branch One of the Rasht Revolutionary Court on charges of baghy (armed rebellion) through collaboration with the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and moharebeh (enmity against God) through destruction of the Rasht seminary. He also received 3 months of imprisonment on the charge of “propaganda against the system” for wall writing which he has already served.
He has been denied medical treatment despite suffering from chronic illnesses and subjected to coercion to force self-incriminating confessions.
On 21 October, IHRNGO warned that Manouchehr Fallah, another political prisoner in Rasht Central Prison, is at grave risk of execution after the Supreme Court also upheld his death sentence and referred his case to the Sentence Enforcement Unit.
Since March 2026, at least 16 political prisoners have been executed on charges of affiliation with banned opposition groups: nine for alleged links to the PMOI/MEK, four to the Baluch groups Jaysh al-Adl and al-Furqan, two to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), and one to Reza Pahlavi.
Poem penned by Peyman in prison after receiving the death penalty:
“For the crime of living, you must die,
You must not reclaim what is rightfully yours.
The sun’s bright hope is buried in the grave,
Woe to these night-blind bandits.
To compose nothing but verses of distress,
Simply to die, never to truly live.
The night of our execution, confined to Misagh [covenant] Ward,
And our homeland’s joy, the smile of our covenant.
Resilience within solitary confinement,
Courage in the depths of interrogation.
For a people condemned to sorrow,
On the path of war against tyrannical decrees.
Embracing martyrdom with heart and soul,
Drawing a final breath upon the gallows of freedom.
Reaching the peak of Mount Qaf to take flight,
Enduring torture and speaking not a word.
Hearing a thousand insults from the vile,
Severing the heart from this cruel world.
Beholding God and departing at peace,
Walking to the gallows with a smile.
Filled with anguish within the prison walls,
For the bitter days of Iran.
Oh Lord, if we are not here tomorrow,
If tomorrow we are no longer in this world,
Be the companion of our deprived people,
Be the refuge for the helpless and the destitute.”
Peyman Farahavar, July 2025, Misagh ward, Rasht Central Prison