Iman Afshari

Iman Afshari
Presiding Judge of Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran
Incumbent
Assumed office
2018-2019

Iman Afshari (Persian: ایمان افشاری) is an Iranian judge who presides over Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, part of a parallel court system that tries political and national-security cases in Iran.

News reports, rights groups and governments have linked him to long prison terms imposed on labour activists, political dissidents, and members of religious minorities, and, according to The Washington Post citing the activist news agency HRANA, to one death sentence during the 2022 protests, in which an appeal was later accepted. He was added to the United Kingdom sanctions list in December 2022, which cited fair-trial and freedom-of-expression violations against political protesters, and was designated by the European Union in January 2026 as part of the Iranian sanctions, which cited involvement in the violent repression of protests and in arbitrary arrests of activists.

Judicial career

Afshari is the presiding judge of Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran.[1][2] According to Iran Human Rights Society, he received a religious seminary (hawza) education.[3] He began working at Branch 26 in the winter of 2018–2019.[4] A September 2024 opinion article published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies similarly stated that he had held the position for approximately six years.[5]

The New Yorker described him in 2026 as "known in Tehran for his tough sentences".[6] The Washington Post named him among a small group of Revolutionary Court judges reported to have issued death sentences during the crackdown on the 2022 protests.[7] Alhurra named him as one of four judges recurring in cases involving political executions.[8]

Reported rulings

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Afshari presided over the February 2019 trial of labour activist As'ad Behnam Ebrahimzadeh (Persian: اسعد ابراهیم‌زاده), which Ebrahimzadeh said lasted ten minutes and was conducted without his lawyer. He was convicted of "propaganda against the state" and "membership in illegal organizations" and sentenced to one and five years' imprisonment respectively; under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code,[a] only the longer five-year sentence was to be served, subject to appeal.[10]

Afshari also imposed a further one-year prison sentence, with a ban on political membership and a travel ban, on the activist Golrokh Iraee, who the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said was neither present at the hearing nor given access to a lawyer. The commission's chair, Gayle Manchin, called it an "outrageous and unwarranted punishment".[11]

In November 2022, Afshari sentenced two Baháʼí leaders, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, both former members of the Baháʼí 7, to ten years' imprisonment each after a trial that USCIRF and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported had lasted about an hour. Each had already served a decade in prison in an earlier case concerning their work for the Baháʼí community.[12][13]

The Washington Post, based on accounts from HRANA, reported that Afshari issued one death sentence during the 2022 protests, and that Iran's high court later accepted an appeal in the case, a finding the paper attributed to the "Volunteer Committee to Follow Up on the Situation of Detainees".[7]

Sanctions

On 9 December 2022, the United Kingdom added Afshari to its sanctions list under reference IRN0112. The UK statement of reasons said that, as presiding judge of Branch 26, he had been "involved in the commission of serious human rights violations in Iran", specifically violations of the right to a fair trial and of political protesters' right to freedom of expression.[2]

On 29 January 2026, the Council of the European Union designated Afshari under its Iran human rights sanctions regime, alongside the interior minister Eskandar Momeni and the prosecutor general Mohammad Movahedi Azad.[1][14] The Council said those listed had been involved in the "violent repression of peaceful protests" and in the arbitrary arrest of activists and human rights defenders.[15]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Article 134 provides that, in cases involving multiple ta'zir offenses, separate punishments are imposed for the offenses but "only the most severe punishment shall be executed".[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "Iman Afshari". EU Sanctions Tracker. Retrieved 11 August 2026 – via data.europa.eu.
  2. 1 2 "AFSHARI, Iman" (PDF). Annex – Iran: consolidated sanctions list entry (UK Sanctions List Ref. IRN0112). Government of Jersey. 14 December 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  3. ↑ Iran Human Rights Center (22 February 2024). "ایمان افشاری قاضی که پرونده ها را نخوانده و با جان متهمان بازی می‌کند" [Iman Afshari, the judge who does not read case files and plays with defendants' lives]. IranGlobal (in Persian). Retrieved 12 August 2026.
  4. ↑ Independent Persian (12 January 2023), "قضات اعدام؛ چه کسانی احکام قتل‌های حکومتی را صادر می‌کنند" [Execution judges: Who issues the sentences for state killings?], Independent Persian (in Persian), retrieved 12 August 2026
  5. ↑ "U.S. Should Sanction Iran's Brutal Judge Iman Afshari". RealClearWorld (Op-ed). Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 27 September 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  6. ↑ Engelbrecht, Cora (3 April 2026). "Searching for Iran's disappeared prisoners". The New Yorker. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 Berger, Miriam (25 January 2023). "At the heart of Iran's crackdown, a small group of judges sentences protesters to hang". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  8. ↑ Jebai, Randa. "Iran's revolutionary execution machine". Alhurra. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  9. ↑ "Iran: Islamic Penal Code". Refworld. Unofficial translation by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. 20 November 1991. Article 134. Retrieved 10 August 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ↑ "Peaceful labor rights activist sentenced to prison in 10-minute trial". Center for Human Rights in Iran. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  11. ↑ "USCIRF Condemns Additional Prison Sentence for Iranian Religious Prisoner of Conscience" (Press release). United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  12. ↑ "USCIRF Condemns Sentencing of Baha'i Women in Iran" (Press release). United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 22 December 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  13. ↑ "Iranian court sentences two Baha'i women to new 10-year prison terms". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Radio Farda. 11 December 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  14. ↑ "EU sanctions Iran's interior minister and prosecutor general". Reuters. 29 January 2026. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  15. ↑ "Iran: Council adopts new sanctions over serious human rights violations and Iran's continued support to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine" (Press release). Council of the European Union. 29 January 2026. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
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